News

It is now almost three years since Najib Abdul Razak took over from Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as prime minister.

He has performed a slew of legislative reforms, set out major economic and education plans but has not yet taken the step to call for Malaysia's 13th general election.

Following the timeframe the constitution sets out, Najib has the autonomy to call elections before April 21, after which the Elections Commission has the prerogative and must call elections within 60 days.

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah yesterday accepted the resignation of the Cabinet submitted by Prime Minsiter Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah in a measure required under the constitution.

The Amir asked the premier and other ministers to continue as a care-taker government until the new Cabinet is formed. Under Kuwaiti law, the Cabinet must resign after the announcement of the parliamentary election results and a new Cabinet must be formed before the National Assembly holds its first session which must be within two weeks of the results.

A team of international observers, which was invited by the Kuwait Transparency Society (KTS) to Kuwait to observe the Dec 1 elections, finished its report and made certain recommendations which were made public yesterday by the Ministry of Information.

The Undersecretary of Ministry of Information, Sheikh Salman Al-Homoud Al- Sabah, expressed his satisfaction at the conduct of elections that reflected the functioning democracy in Kuwait.

AMMAN - A mass pro-reform rally ended peacefully in Amman on Friday after counter-protestors suspended a series of rival demonstrations.

In a so-called Friday “popular uprising for reform,” some 7,000 activists converged on the Interior Ministry Circle in Amman to call for urgent political reforms and protest a recent government decision to raise fuel prices.

Le Front de libération nationale (FLN) a remporté les élections locales organisées jeudi, en obtenant 7.191 sièges dans les Assemblées populaires communales (APC) et 685 sièges aux Assemblées de wilaya (APW). Le FLN vient ainsi en première position avec un taux de 28,89% des 24.891 sièges à pourvoir au sein des APC et 34,18% des 2 004 sièges à pourvoir aux APW, selon les résultats préliminaires rendus publics hier par le ministre de l'Intérieur et des Collectivités locales, M. Daho Ould Kablia lors d'une conférence de presse.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has offered to postpone discussions at Parliament’s Constitution Reconciliation Commission on its proposal for a presidential system to avoid obstructing the body’s work after the three opposition parties backed the continuation of the parliamentary system. 

The AKP has also suggested that their presidential system proposal for Turkey’s new Constitution could eventually be drafted with red lines from opposition parties, in other words, with reservations and parentheses.

Tumultuous efforts to draft a new constitution for Egypt rushed toward a conclusion Thursday as Islamists who dominate the council writing the new document called for a snap vote amid widespread protests against the Muslim Brotherhood-backed president.

The move was seen by some critics of President Mohamed Morsy as an effort by the Muslim Brotherhood to hijack the constitution.