Polls close in Kuwaiti Elections
'Pakistan Times' Wire Service

KUWAIT CITY: Polling stations closed on Saturday in Kuwait's parliamentary elections which were called following a political crisis between MPs and the government that led to dissolving the parliament.

The stations closed at 8:00 pm (1700 GMT) 12 hours after voting began and the counting of votes, which is manual, was expected to start soon while results were due to come out in the early hours of Sunday.

There were no immediate official figures on the turnout but state-run Kuwait TV and private television stations reported that it was more than 75 percent for men and slightly above 50 percent for women.

Twenty-seven women were among 275 candidates who were running for the 50-seat parliament which has legislative and monitoring powers.

The number of eligible voters is 361,700 with 200,500 female voters, or 55.4 percent, and 161,200 male voters.●