West News Wire: In the most recent political impasse in the Gulf nation, Kuwait’s cabinet quit just three months after it was formed.
According to the official news agency KUNA, the country’s crown prince received the resignation from the prime minister’s cabinet on Monday.
After dissolving the previous parliament to put a stop to squabbles that were impeding economic reforms, Crown Prince Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who has assumed most of the emir’s responsibilities, appointed Sheikh Ahmad as premier and announced early legislative elections last year.
Recently, tensions between Kuwait’s elected parliament and the newly-installed government reemerged as legislators pushed for a debt relief package that would have allowed the government to purchase the personal loans of Kuwaiti citizens and attempted to interview two ministers.
The prime minister submitted the government’s resignation to the crown prince “as a result of what has become of the relationship between the executive and legislative authorities”, KUNA reported citing a cabinet statement.
Parliament had been scheduled to convene on Tuesday.
MP Shuaib al-Muwaizri, head of parliament’s financial and economic affairs committee, had said in a Twitter post on Sunday that personal debt relief would remain on the table until the government “officially presents just alternatives” to increase wages, pensions and social assistance for Kuwaitis.
The wealthy oil-producing Gulf nation has been trying to strengthen its finances as part of structural reforms, including a debt law that would allow the state to tap international markets, but which has faced legislative gridlock.
Political bickering has for years hampered investment and reforms in Kuwait, which is heavily dependent on oil revenues, has an expansive welfare system and a public sector that employs roughly 80 percent of its citizens. Kuwaitis account for less than a third of the population of 4.6 million people.
Opposition figures made big gains in September parliamentary polls in the country, which bans political parties but has given its legislature more influence than similar bodies in other Gulf monarchies.
Kuwait’s leadership has tried to overcome political discord by responding to key opposition demands, including granting amnesties to political dissidents, clamping down on perceived corruption and restructuring some key institutions.
