Kuwaiti parliament's website hacked on Election Day

The official website of Kuwait's parliament was hacked on Saturday night as the vote count began for the country's parliamentary election sparked by a rebellion against cuts to subsidies.

In his message, the hacker slammed MP Abdul Hamid Dashti - known for his close ties with Iran and the Syrian regime - asking the other members of parliament to unite against what he described as "Iran's agents".

"A word for agent Dashti: the people and government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are a red line not to be crossed," the hacker said.

The individual then threatened to reveal the MP's correspondence with the Iranian and Syrian regimes, and his "plot against Gulf nations in general and the Kuwati people in particular".

The hacker also asked the MPs to look into the issue of Bidoon, stateless residents of Kuwait who do not benefit from basic citizenship rights.

"When will there suffering end? No education or healthcare," the hacker said.

He demanding a solution for the minority group by granting them Kuwaiti citizenship.

More than 110,000 Bidoons have lived in Kuwait for decades, claiming the right to citizenship in the oil-rich emirate and the generous welfare benefits that accompany it.

But the Kuwaiti government argues only 34,000 Bidoons qualify for consideration for citizenship. The rest, it says, are economic migrants from neighbouring countries or their descendants without any solid claim.

Kuwait's Islamist, nationalist and liberal opposition won nearly half of the parliament's seats in Saturday's elections, raising fears of fresh political wrangling.

Unlike other oil-rich Gulf Arab states, Kuwait has an elected parliament with powers to hold ministers to account, even though senior members of the ruling family hold all top cabinet posts.

The set-up has led to repeated standoffs between lawmakers and the ruling family and Saturday's vote was the seventh general election in a decade.

But the strength of the opposition allows them to grill ministers and possibly even vote them out of office.

The election came with Kuwait facing its most acute budget crisis in years. Oil income, which accounts for 95 percent of government revenues, has nosedived by 60 percent in the past two years.