Kuwait's Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad al-Sabah on Monday announced the decision to dissolve the National Assembly (parliament), whose composition was reinstated by a Constitutional Court decision in March 2023. According to the crown prince's statement, parliamentary elections will be held in the coming months.
"Following the provisions of the Constitution and respecting the will of the people, we have decided to dissolve the 2020 National Assembly, which has been reinstated by the Constitutional Court <...>, and hold general elections in the coming months," said a statement released by the Kuna news agency.
According to the crown prince, the elections will be followed by political and legal reforms that will aim to overcome differences between the government and parliament, avoid abuses by the legislature and the executive, and ensure the independence of the judiciary. He did not specify which reforms he was referring to.
On March 19, Kuwait's Constitutional Court invalidated the results of the September 29, 2022 National Assembly elections and reinstated the parliament whose members had been elected on December 5, 2020.
Last year, the crown prince announced the dissolution of parliament, citing dissatisfaction with the legislature on the part of his subjects. According to him, the political scene in Kuwait had constantly seen attempts to "satisfy personal interests at the expense of the nation," negatively affecting both the country's development prospects and relations between the executive and the legislature. Early parliamentary elections were held on September 29, 2022.
The parliament in Kuwait has more influence than similar institutions in other Persian Gulf monarchies, so the stability of the political system traditionally depends on how effectively the legislative and the executive interact. In recent years, there has been an ongoing conflict between the elected parliament and the appointed government, which has once again led to the dissolution of the legislature.
Because of disagreements with parliament, the Kuwaiti government has resigned seven times in three years. On April 9, Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah formed a new cabinet, the composition of which was approved by a decree of the crown prince. The previous government resigned in January 2023, just three months after taking office.
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Photo: Abdullah Alqattan/Creative Commons 2.0
Based on materials from TASS