Kuwait Airline Offers Free Flights To Women Voters

Kuwait's no-frills Jazeera Airways said on Saturday it will fly women voters back to the Gulf Arab state for free to take part in the June 29 elections, the first to include women.

The private airline said in a statement the move is meant to encourage women voters to return home to cast ballots.

"We just want to make sure that they are given every opportunity to return home without cost or expense to exercise their democratic right to vote," Jazeera Chairman Marwan Boodai said.

In 2005 the Gulf Arab state passed a law allowing women to vote and run for office for the first time.

Most Kuwaitis travel abroad during the year's hottest months -- June to August -- as temperatures soar to near 50 centigrade in the desert state.

The total number of eligible voters in Kuwait is 340,000 of whom 195,000, or 57 per cent, are women.

(Reuters)