Kuwait: Forty-five candidates including eight women filed their nomination papers yesterday to contest the National Assembly election on Dec 5, raising the number of hopefuls in two days to 138 including 14 females. The new candidates include five MPs in the Assembly that just ended its term and as many as eight former MPs who were members in previous assemblies.

Prominent among the candidates who registered yesterday were Deputy Speaker Issa Al-Kandari, MPs Saleh Ashour and Khaled Al-Shatti, all from the first constituency, MP Safa Al-Hashem from the third constituency and MP Nayef Al-Merdas from the fifth constituency.

Other prominent candidates include former minister and MP Roudhan Al-Roudhan, who said the last National Assembly was given full opportunity to deliver but failed. He said he plans to contest the election for the speaker of the Assembly if he wins a seat from the third constituency. Roudhan failed four years ago to retain his seat.

Former minister Bader Al-Humaidi filed to run in the second constituency, while four former opposition MPs registered their candidacy from the fifth constituency – Ahmad Al-Azemi, Humoud Al-Hamdan, Jaber Al-Azemi and Marzouk Al-Hubaini.

As many as 93 candidates registered on the opening day on Monday. Registration of candidates closes on Nov 4. Withdrawal of candidacy has started and will continue until seven days before election day. Nadia Al-Othman, who filed to run in the third constituency, called for respecting and implementing in full the constitution of Kuwait and other laws.