Manama: Three days into the Kuwait parliamentary elections, former lawmakers who intitially planned to boycott the November polls said they would be running after all.

The opposition, made up mainly of Islamists and tribal candidates dominated the elections in February 2012.

However, they boycotted the polls in 2013 to protest against the amendment of the 2006 electoral law that slashed the number of candidates a voter could elect from four to one.

The opposition charged that the government was trying to influence elections in order to produce a friendly parliament and challenged the amendment at the Constitutional Court.

However, Kuwait’s top court in June 2013 rejected the challenge and called for new elections.

“The boycott was a necessity because we wanted to protests against the amendment, but following the verdict by the Constitutional Court, we have to keep moving ahead and participate,” Ammar Al Ajmi, a former lawmaker, said as he submitted his application to run in next month’s elections.

“We are going through crises and there has to be cooperation between the legislative and executive branches. We must be well aware that the parliament had been hijacked and we have to step in. I urge all citizens to make the right choice.”

Two other former lawmakers also signed up their names while former MP Waleed Al Tabtabai said that he was planning to run alongside other former members who boycotted the last polls.

Al Tabtabai who had often waded into controversy said that the decision to run was taken “for the sake and high interests of Kuwaitis.”

Out of the 152 candidates who have signed up their names to contest for membership on the 50-seat parliament, only five were women.

On the first day of the registration process on Wednesday, no woman came forward to run in the elections while 71 men handed in their applications, but on Thursday four women signed up compared with 57 men.

On Friday, a fifth woman and 19 men joined in the race, and with one week left in the registration window, pro-women were hoping that more female candidates would seek seats.

“I will go for an integrated programme for women who have suffered tremendously in Kuwait,” Waheeda Haydar said after submitting her application.

“Women deserve our full support, and there are many unfair laws that need to be addressed. We live in an advanced country and we should match the European laws that support and motivate women. For instance, there are some European countries that give monthly salaries to their women to look after the family.”

The candidate said that if elected, she would push for amending the laws that had negative impact on the people, including the hike in the oil price and the increase in the traffic fines.

“I will also consider imposing taxes on businesspeople in order to narrow the gap between the wealthy and not so wealthy. There are people living high in the sky whereas others are smashed by monthly installments and other high costs of living,” she said, quoted by Kuwaiti daily Al Rai on Saturday.

Meanwhile, controversial MP Abdul Hameed Dashti’s bid to run in the elections was on Saturday rejected by the Elections Commission which demanded his physical presence in the premises as a condition to accept the application.

The application was reportedly presented by the lawmaker’s son, and the Commission said the procedure was not acceptable.

The MP who has lived abroad since March was sentenced to jail for insulting Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the judiciary.