The Executive will remain in office until another

The Emir of Kuwait accepts the resignation of the Government

photo_camera PHOTO/AGENCIA DE NOTICIAS DE KUWAIT - The Amir of Kuwait Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah and the Crown Prince, Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad Al-Jaber al-Sabah

The Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmed al-Sabah, accepted the government's resignation on Monday. After the members of the Kuwaiti cabinet presented their resignations to the prime minister, Sabah al-Khaled al-Sabah, he handed over the resignation of his government team to the emir. 

The state news agency KUNA has announced that the Kuwaiti emir accepted "the resignation of Prime Minister Sabah al-Khaled, and his ministers, who will continue in office until a new government is formed".

This government has lasted a little over a month; the Cabinet of Ministers was formed on 14 December. Nine days after legislative elections in which the opposition went from occupying 16 seats to 24 of the 50 that make up the parliament. The new Cabinet saw a major reorganisation as only six of the 16 ministers served previously in their posts. 

The government is likely to have resigned following the growing confrontation between the government institution and Parliament. In addition to the motion against the Prime Minister, several parliamentarians have expressed dissatisfaction with the executive branch for going against public demands and failing to fulfil its constitutional duties.

One of the sources of tension between the executive branch and Parliament is the problem of corruption. This is in addition to opposition from MPs to an attempt by the executive to impose more taxes on Kuwaitis. On the other hand, the discontent has also been due to the economic deterioration caused by the fall in oil prices and the coronavirus health crisis. 

Despite the government's resignation, the speaker of parliament, Marzouq al-Ghanim, has announced that the ministers will continue in office until a new executive is formed. Al-Ghanim also added that there will be no parliamentary sessions until then. 

However, there is no constitutional law dictating how soon the new government should be formed. It is not clear what will happen, but the usual next step is for the emir to appoint a new prime minister, who will then form a new government.

Also, one of the main disputes between the executive and parliament has been the motion to question the prime minister. On 5 January, three MPs, Bader al-Dahoom, Thamer al-Suwait and Khaled al-Moanes, submitted such a motion.

They based their motion on a couple of clauses, one of which states that the prime minister did not adhere to Article 98 of the Kuwaiti Constitution. This states that once the government is formed, each ministry will present its programme to the National Assembly, and the Assembly may make any comments it deems appropriate in this regard.

A day later, 38 parliamentarians agreed to the questioning, which marked an unprecedented step. It was the first time in Kuwait's history that a majority of parliamentarians were in favour of a motion before the session.

The questioning of Sabah al-Khaled took place one day before a scheduled parliamentary session. For this reason, the government did not attend the meeting with the intention of resigning. An interrogation session was then scheduled for 19 January, but has been cancelled because the emir has just accepted the resignation. 

Sabah al-Khalid had previously resigned after the parliamentary elections of 6 December.

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