KUWAIT - Parliament failed on Monday to pass a bill to let Kuwait's disenfranchised women vote in local elections because many conservative MPs abstained in what some lawmakers said was a delaying tactic.

Deputy Speaker Mishari al-Anjari said there would have to be another vote, which might take place in parliament on Tuesday.

Among the 60 deputies and government ministers present, 29 voted in support, two against and 29 abstained from the vote on the bill to allow women to vote or run for the first time in local municipal elections in the Gulf Arab state.

The abstentions mean the required quorum of 33 MPs was not achieved because an abstaining MP is counted as absent.

MP Ahmad al-Mulaifi also expected a vote on Tuesday. "The legislation did not get a majority (to pass) but it also was not defeated because of the abstentions," Mulaifi told Reuters.

"So now, according to custom it is suspended... until tomorrow."

Some MPs privately said the abstention was a delaying tactic by the bill's opponents.

Others may have abstained because a vote against would upset the reform-minded government, while a "yes" would anger Islamist or conservative tribal supporters who are against giving women more rights.

Parliament approved the legislation in a first vote two weeks ago, but many Islamists, tribal and other MPs opposed to female suffrage were then absent.

Kuwaiti women, traditionally more liberal and educated than their Gulf Arab counterparts but lagging behind some of them in political rights, have been pressing for years for greater say.

They have no vote and cannot become ministers, deputies, diplomats, judges or prosecutors. The highest-ranking official post they can attain is assistant undersecretary.

Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah told reporters he hoped the bill would be passed in a new round of voting.

"There will be another vote because parliament's decision is not a rejection but rather a postponement," Sheikh Sabah said.

He said the outcome of Monday's vote was "unsatisfactory".

The government has also introduced a bill to grant full female suffrage by letting women run and vote in parliamentary elections but that has yet to be approved by parliament.

Similar government steps have failed in the past, including a 1999 law to grant women the vote in parliamentary polls, narrowly defeated by conservative Islamist and tribal MPs who wield big influence in the current house.

Islamist MPs said they hoped the bill would fail.

"It's presumed that the law has failed," MP Faisal al-Muslem told Reuters.

Additional reporting by H. Hashim Ahmed

Parliament failed on Monday to pass a bill to let Kuwait's disenfranchised women vote in local elections because many conservative MPs abstained in what some lawmakers said was a delaying tactic.

Deputy Speaker Mishari al-Anjari said there would have to be another vote, which might take place in parliament on Tuesday.

Among the 60 deputies and government ministers present, 29 voted in support, two against and 29 abstained from the vote on the bill to allow women to vote or run for the first time in local municipal elections in the Gulf Arab state.

The abstentions mean the required quorum of 33 MPs was not achieved because an abstaining MP is counted as absent.

MP Ahmad al-Mulaifi also expected a vote on Tuesday. "The legislation did not get a majority (to pass) but it also was not defeated because of the abstentions," Mulaifi told Reuters.

"So now, according to custom it is suspended ... until tomorrow."