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Kuwait, Nov. 30 (Reuters): Tens of thousands of people marched in Kuwait today calling for a voter boycott, a day before a parliamentary election that looks unlikely to defuse tensions in the US-allied, oil-producing Gulf country.
Organisers said the march was the largest ever in Kuwaiti history and a message to the authorities of deep discontent with changes to the voting system ordered by the ruling emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, six weeks before the election.
Opposition politicians are not standing in the election in protest at the emir’s decree, which changed voting rules in a way they say will skew the outcome in favour of pro-government candidates. Protesters said they would shun the ballot box. Kuwait’s disaffected say they seek democratic reform, not revolution in the mould of Arab Spring revolts.
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