DUBAI, Oct 24 (Reuters) – Kuwait risks sliding into Arab Spring-style protests over a forthcoming election that has polarised opinion in the Gulf Arab state and posed an unprecedented challenge to the authority of the once revered emir, a close Western ally.

Kuwait saw some of the worst violence in its recent history when tens of thousands of demonstrators – out of a native population of just 1.2 million – protested this week at changes to election laws they see as an attempt to limit the prospects for the opposition at the parliamentary vote on Dec. 1.

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