Kuwait’s Emir Plans Vote, Calls for GIs to Stay

Kuwait’s ruling emir, in the face of widespread public disillusionment with his government, vowed Sunday to hold national elections for a new parliament within the next year and said he will encourage U.S. troops to remain in Kuwait as long as Saddam Hussein remains in power in Iraq.

Facing mounting criticism that already has forced the resignation of his Cabinet, Sheik Jabbar al Ahmed al Sabah also pledged to consider granting voting rights to women and other Kuwaitis who do not hold full citizenship privileges.

“We have decided that after the stability of all things in the country has been restored, that parliamentary life will return back to Kuwaitis and elections will take place within the next year,” the emir said in his annual Ramadan address to the nation.

But Jabbar made it clear that Kuwait will seek to rely on its allies to guard against what it perceives as a continuing threat from Iraq, vowing to seek the presence of American troops “to repel any mad act that tyrant might embark upon so long as he is in power.”

“I don’t think Kuwait is safe yet,” he declared. “The seeds of evil lie in his soul, and probably he is again going to spread his seeds.”

The emir accused Iraq of maintaining a “fifth column” within Kuwait in an attempt to destabilize the country in the wake of Iraq’s seven-month occupation.

The pledge for democratic reforms was clearly aimed at garnering support from a growing political opposition that has effectively blocked appointment of a new government by refusing to take part in it without significant new strides toward democracy in Kuwait.

The opposition has been critical of the ruling Sabah family’s handling of the crisis with Iraq, raising questions about why the country was so unprepared for Hussein’s Aug. 2 invasion and about the slow and muddled restoration of government services after the liberation of Kuwait. Pro-democracy leaders have demanded a definite timetable for elections, greater public participation in all branches of the government and greater freedom of expression.

The emir’s address goes little further than a similar pledge last year to restore Kuwait’s constitution, leaving open the question of precisely when national parliamentary elections will be held. A Ministry of Information spokesman said it appears likely they will be held sometime during 1992.

The emir does, however, propose to make the hardships Kuwaitis are undergoing more bearable by forgiving all loans that private Kuwaiti citizens owe to commercial banks and savings and loans.

Opposition leaders were cautiously optimistic in their response, applauding the emir’s promise to consider granting voting rights to women and so-called second-class Kuwaitis who are not presently allowed to vote.

But pro-democracy leader Abdullah Nubari said the emir’s statement on elections is too vague, leaving open the possibility that elections could be held as early as January, which he said would be acceptable, or as late as December, 1992, which he said would not be acceptable.

“I’m happy; it’s enough,” said a former Kuwaiti resistance leader, Hussein Abdulrahman, who has been among those most critical of the returning Sabah government. “It means there will be elections in January, and that is acceptable.”

However, some other Kuwaitis said the government has been promising to study restoring parliament and the 1962 constitution for several years, doing so again as recently as last fall, when Crown Prince Saad al Abdullah al Sabah promised democratic reforms at a convention of exiled Kuwaitis in Saudi Arabia. But no specific timetable was ever given.

Kuwait’s National Assembly was dissolved in 1986 during the Iran-Iraq War, after pro-Iranian Shiites launched bomb attacks and made an attempt on the emir’s life, and both the press and legislators mounted harsh public condemnations of the government.

After pro-democracy protests last year, the government held elections for an interim National Council with more limited powers than parliament, but opposition leaders boycotted the polls because of the restrictions on the council and because a large portion of its membership would be appointed, not elected.

Since Kuwait’s liberation from Iraq, Nubari and others have said that members of the allied coalition that drove Iraq out of Kuwait have an obligation to urge democratic reforms here, and U.S. Ambassador Edward W. (Skip) Gnehm Jr. has publicly urged the Sabah family to consider broad public participation in government in Kuwait.

In a statement distributed over the weekend for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, one of Kuwait’s leading pro-democracy groups insisted on setting an election date within six months.

“These (holy) days coincide with a public expectation for a declaration by the political leadership expressing its readiness to fulfill the promises it has given in the near past,” the statement said.

The group also insisted on the dismissal of all government officials “responsible for the severe failure of facing the catastrophe” of the Iraqi invasion.