Kuwait marks constitution with Guinness record

Nov 11, 2012 |

KUWAIT CITY

Tags:

Kuwait on Saturday marked the golden jubilee of its constitution with a spectacular $14-million fireworks display which earned the wealthy Gulf state a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

"I am happy to verify that with 77,282 fireworks, a new Guinness world record has been set tonight" in Kuwait City, a representative of Guinness World Records announced on Kuwait television at the end of the display.

Tens of thousands of Kuwaitis and expatriates filled the seaside Arabian Gulf Road where the one-hour fireworks and laser display was staged to mark the 50th anniversary of the constitution.

On November 11, 1962, the late emir Sheikh Abdullah al-Salem al-Sabah promulgated the constitution for Kuwait to become the first Arab state in the Gulf to issue a constitution and have a parliament.

Ahead of the celebration, Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah reiterated in a televised speech the government's unwavering commitment to democracy and called for national unity as the oil-rich Gulf state goes through a bitter political crisis.

During the past 50 years, parliament was dissolved nine times, six of them since mid-2006, while some articles of the constitution itself were frozen twice to suspend parliament for a total of 11 years in the 1970s and 1980s.

The celebration came as the government and opposition are locked in one of the worst showdowns in the OPEC member's history, amid accusations by the opposition that the government has staged a coup against the constitution.

More than 150 people and 24 policemen were slightly hurt during three massive demonstrations held by the opposition to protest against the amendment of the electoral law ordered by the emir last month.

The opposition claims the amendment is in breach of the constitution and allows the government to influence the outcome of parliamentary polls slated for December 1. It insists that the emir must repeal the amendment.

The opposition is marking the constitution anniversary with a huge rally in Kuwait City on Sunday

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/202170" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-0c295b4aff807fa65fc670f336347464" value="form-0c295b4aff807fa65fc670f336347464" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="85289990" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>