Kuwait’s constitutional court annulled the results of last year’s parliamentary polls, potentially rekindling a long-running dispute over the elected legislature in the OPEC member.
(Bloomberg) —
Kuwait’s constitutional court annulled the results of last year’s parliamentary polls, potentially rekindling a long-running dispute over the elected legislature in the OPEC member.
The shock ruling, issued Sunday, threw out September’s vote because the court considered the decree dissolving the last parliament invalid, Kuwait’s state-run news agency reported. The parliament from 2020 was reinstated.
Kuwaiti politics has for years been defined by a continual dispute between the legislature — the only one in the Gulf with a real say over governance — and cabinets installed by the ruling Al-Sabah family. There have been a number of challenges against the September vote, which saw a win for opposition and conservative lawmakers.
The outcome of Sunday’s ruling is likely to lead to even more instability, and the resumption of a crisis between opposition lawmakers and the former parliament speaker. That dispute caused a deadlock, leading to the dissolving of the parliament in 2022.
Kuwait’s parliament has now been dissolved 12 times, including through two previous court rulings, since the first National Assembly elections in 1963. The country previously had a so-called constitutional assembly.
Kuwait’s cabinet resigned in January less than four months after being appointed, as it tried to out-maneuver lawmakers seeking to pass legislation that ministers said would strain state finances. One of the disputed bills included a proposal for the government to buy billions of dinars worth of citizens’ consumer loans.
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