KUWAIT, Dec 4: Voting for Kuwaiti parliamentary elections begins Saturday morning amid strict health measures, in light of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Kuwaitis will vote to elect 50 members of Parliament for the sixteenth legislative term, from 326 candidates running for the National Assembly (Ummah 2020) elections.

The voting process, the one-vote system, will start from 8:00 a.m. and proceed until 8:00 p.m. local time. Up to 71 candidates are competing in the first electoral district with 84,822 voters, while in the second district 51 candidates are competing to obtain the votes of 64,965 people.
In the third district, 70 candidates are competing to win the 101,492 voters. The fourth district has 76 candidates with 150,193 voters, while 58 candidates in the fifth electral district are seeking to win the votes of their estimated 166,222 voters.

The health precautions during the voting process includes limited groups' gathering outside and inside the polling stations, wearing masks, sterilizing hands and wearing gloves. Medical clinics were designated in each center to preserve the health and safety of everyone.

In this context, His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, earlier, had called for adherence to health guidelines and requirements during polling day. On his part, President of Kuwait's Supreme Judicial Council and Chairman of the Court of Cassation Justice Ahmad Al-Ajeel called on the authorities supervising the electoral process to facilitate the voting process.

On the other side, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Interior and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Anas Al-Saleh - Chairman of the Committee in charge of preparing, and organizing for the National Assembly elections -- confirmed readiness of the ministries of health, justice and education to ensure success of the parliamentary election.

As for Kuwait manicipality, it had formed five field teams distributed in the five electoral zones to monitor all activities throughout the election, whether before or after polling day.

They will ensure that schools, streets and squares are clean, with all sterilizers and preventive means provided during the voting process in order to preserve the safety of voters and workers in all polling centers.
For his part, spokeswoman of Kuwait Health Ministry Dr. Abdullah Al-Sanad, stressed in an interview with Kuwait TV on Thursday, it is necessary that voters who are infected with the Coronavirus or those who are quarantined take a temporary permit on the (Shlonak) application before going to poll.

Al-Sanad indicated that a number of schools have been designated to receive only the voters infected with the Coronavirus.
The Education Ministry, in turn, had selected 102 schools to receive the voters, as school principals, engineering teams, directors,and public services monitors will be present for any emergency at schools.
As for the Ministry of Information, it confirmed its readINESS to cover the election through Kuwaiti Radio and TV. The same with the General Fire Directorate which confirmed readiness of its teams to quickly intervene if required during the voting process(KUNA)