Kuwait strips naturalized citizens of voting rights

KUWAIT CITY — Kuwait's emir on Sunday approved a decree banning naturalized citizens from voting, two years after dissolving parliament and embarking on a mass nationality-stripping campaign.

Previously, naturalized Kuwaitis were able to vote 30 years after acquiring the nationality, but were banned from running for office or being appointed.

Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah issued a decree "amending certain provisions of the Kuwaiti Nationality Law," Kuwait's official KUNA news agency reported.

The amendment said "those who acquired Kuwaiti nationality through naturalization shall not have the right to vote, run for office, or be appointed to any parliamentary body," it added.

Starting in 2024, Kuwait launched a campaign of mass citizenship revocations that has affected tens of thousands of people.

The revocations have been cast as part of a reformist agenda spearheaded by the Kuwaiti emir, who dissolved parliament and suspended parts of the constitution five months after taking power in December 2023.

It abolished naturalization by marriage, which only applied to women, and revoked citizenships granted to wives since 1987.

It also targeted people with dual nationality, which Kuwait prohibits, and those who became citizens fraudulently—by using forged documents, for example.

The citizenship policy appears aimed at restricting nationality to those with blood ties to the tiny, oil-rich nation, reshaping Kuwaiti identity and potentially trimming its electorate after years of political crisis, analysts told AFP. — Agence France-Presse