KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait has formally dissolved Parliament in a decree, according to state news agency KUNA, as the Gulf Arab State’s Crown Prince moved to resolve a standoff between the government and elected Parliament that has hindered fiscal reform.
Last month, Crown Prince Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad Al Sabah, who took over most of the ruling emir’s duties, said he was dissolving Parliament and would call for early elections. On Monday, he approved a cabinet headed by a new prime minister.
“To rectify the political scene, the lack of harmony and cooperation … and behaviour that undermines national unity, it was necessary to resort to the people…to rectify the path,” Sheikh Meshal said in the decree dissolving parliament, KUNA reported on Tuesday. The decree said elections will be held within two months to elect a new parliament.
The previous government resigned in April in advance of a non-cooperation motion in parliament against Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid, who late last month was replaced as prime minister by the current emir’s son, Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al Sabah. Political stability in Kuwait, an OPEC oil producer, has traditionally depended on cooperation between the government and parliament, the Gulf region’s most lively legislature. Kuwait bans political parties but has given its legislature more influence than similar bodies in other Gulf monarchies. Deadlock between government and parliament in Kuwait has often led to cabinet reshuffles and dissolutions of the legislature over the decades, hampering investment and reforms. The last time parliament was dissolved was in 2016. –Agenceis
