Kuwaiti women demand political rights in a march on a polling station yesterday during the country's parliamentary election

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Kuwait City (Reuter) - Kuwaiti women demand political rights in a march on a polling station yesterday during the country's parliamentary election, the first in six years. They were among some 60 demonstrators in the capital's Mishref suburb who called on the new parliament to grant women the right to vote and stand as candidates. They held banners saying 'With you in the election of 1996'. Earlier, about 120 women, watched by security forces, demonstrated outside another polling station. Protected by armed police, long queues of men formed at polling stations and a strong turn-out of eligible voters was reported.

Some 81,400 people, a fraction of Kuwait's 600,000 citizens, registered to vote. Voters must be male, over 21 and able to trace their roots in Kuwait back to before 1920. The 50-member parliament will be the only elected assembly in the six states of the Gulf Co-operation Council.