Kuwait:- The Voting process for parliamentary elections was underway on Saturday, where 326 candidates running for 50 seats.
The parliamentary elections voting is held from 8 am to 8 pm quoted by Xinhua news agency reported.
The Kuwait news agency reported that 326 candidates across five electoral districts in the country will run for 50 seats whereas compared to 2016 parliamentary elections 293 candidates had run for 50 seats.
The 50 elected members of the Kuwait national assembly are appointed from the five 10-seat constituencies by a single non-transferable vote.
102 educational bodies across the country have been selected by the Education minister of Kuwait to receive voters during the parliamentary elections.
In order to vote, all eligible voters must carry their jinseya (nationality document). Women and men vote at separate polling stations (most schools are re-purposed for polling day as polling stations).
The elections are jointly managed by the Ministry of Interior, Minister of Justice, and the judiciary.
Strict health precautions have been taken up by the government of Kuwait during the voting process which includes limiting group gathering and maintain social distance near the polling booth, asked voters to wear masks, Wash hands and wear gloves.
Medial clinics are set up by the government for the health and safety of the voters.
Voters who all are infected by Covid-19 or those who all are quarantined need to get permits through an app before going to polling stations said the Health Ministry’s spokesperson Abdullah Al-Sanad.
A certain number of schools have been specially assigned to receive infected voters.
There are 567,694 eligible voters, voter turnout is expected to be less than the last parliamentary elections, where voter turnout was around 70 percent. This is due to various reasons, but largely because of the COVID-19 and the boycott movement.
Health measures
One of the health measures put in place this year is that there are six polling stations, one in each governorate, for those infected by COVID-19.
Everybody working inside the polling stations, the candidates and the security forces were required to conduct a PCR test as per the health guidelines.
In a span of two days, Thursday and Friday, Kuwait performed over 23,000 COVID-19 tests, the majority of which were in preparation for the elections.
As for the voters, all must adhere to the health requirements: wear a mask and gloves, practice social distancing and have temperatures taken before entering polling stations.
