Oct. 15--KUWAIT -- Mubarak Al-Waalan, whose membership was scrapped by the constitutional court last month, said yesterday that he will hold a meeting today with Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi to discuss the legality of the court ruling. Lawyer Yasser Al-Jadaei, who represents Waalan and other ousted MP Abdullah Al-Ajmi, meanwhile said that he will submit Khorafi a notice from the court warning him to apply the law and not to prevent them from entering the National Assembly.

Khorafi on his part expressed disbelief that some lawyers have advised the former two MPs that they have the right to attend Assembly session in defiance of the constitutional court ruling. The new controversy was sparked when Waalan and Ajmi announced on Monday that they considered themselves as legitimate lawmakers and vowed to attend the opening session of the new term on October 21.

The constitutional court ruling last month scrapped the membership of Waalan and Ajmi and declared Askar Al-Enezi and Saadoun Al-Oteibi as new MPs. Enezi and Oteibi are due to take the oath on October 21. The court based its unprecedented verdict on a mistake in the calculation of votes made by judges who supervised the general elections on May 17. Waalan and Ajmi, in addition to other candidates, have disputed the court ruling as illegal on two counts. First, they said the court made more mistakes in the calculation and secondly that the court's composition was not in line with Kuwaiti law and thus its verdicts are null and void.

Khorafi has however insisted that the court's ruling is valid as long as it is not negated by another ruling by the same court and said the two former MPs will not be allowed to enter the Assembly chamber. In a statement to reporters yesterday, Waalan reiterated his claims, saying that the constitutional court formation violated the law and accordingly its ruling are illegal. Waalan said that he considers the composition of the constitutional court as illegal and thus its verdicts are not valid. Waalan and Ajmi have submitted a petition against the ruling and the constitutional court has set October 27 to look into it.

In another development, MP Dhaifallah Buramia, who has championed calls for a write-off of all debts owed by Kuwaiti citizens, yesterday blasted the Kuwaiti government for pumping billions of dinars into the bourse, saying that this only serves the interests of merchants. Buramia said that thousands of Kuwaiti citizens have been suffering because of bank debts during the past four years and the government did nothing to help them.

He said that the number of Kuwaiti citizens wanted by police for nonpayment of debts has reached 100,000 citizens and the Interior Ministry has been chasing them for the sake of banks and merchants. Buramia said that when he submitted a draft law calling for debt relief for Kuwaiti citizens, the government refused and several MPs rejected the call, using safeguarding of public funds as an excuse.

But when the bourse slumped, they and the government rushed to rescue a handful of merchants by pumping billions of dinars. He said that the Kuwaiti people should understand that their government "is only ready to sacrifice for the sake of saving merchants and serving the people is at the bottom of its concerns". Buramia vowed to resubmit the debt relief draft law very soon, adding that those who now call for pumping liquidity to support the bourse should also support the debt relief bill.

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