Kuwait's parliament fails to endorse women's participation in elections

The Kuwaiti parliament has failed to endorse a draft law supported by the government to permit women to take part in the local elections after it approved it two weeks earlier.

According to the first approval the municipal elections were postponed until October in order to permit women to register themselves in the election lists as a measure to endorse the document.

The draft law was opposed by two parliamentarian, while 29 abstained and 29 others approved it.

However, the Kuwaiti parliament, which includes 50 parliamentarians as well as the ministers who have the right to vote, consider the abstainers from voting as absent which means the legal number of voters was not completed upon voting on Monday and therefore the voting will be made again today Tuesday.

The Kuwaiti law only permits men for voting. Several government's attempts failed since 1999 to adopt laws giving women this right because of those accounting for the Islamic and conservative trend that stand against it.