By B Izzak
KUWAIT: The first session of the court-revived National Assembly failed to take place on Tuesday due to a lack of quorum and the absence of the government, leading Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem to adjourn the Assembly until after the Eid Al-Fitr holidays, which start on April 21. Only 22 lawmakers showed up for the session, which was expected to be canceled as Prime Minister-designate HH Sheikh Ahmad Al-Nawaf Al-Sabah has not formed the new Cabinet.
The presence of at least one minister is essential for Assembly sessions to be legal, according to Kuwaiti law. The constitutional court ruled on March 19 that the Amiri decree that dissolved the National Assembly, known as the 2020 parliament, violated the constitution. As a result, the court annulled the parliamentary polls held on Sept 29 last year and scrapped the 2022 parliament.
That plunged the country into a political crisis, as opposition MPs rejected the court verdict, saying it exceeded its powers, while the revived 2020 MPs urged the prime minister to speed up the process of forming the new Cabinet. Local media and analysts have said that the prime minister is not willing to deal with the revived 2020 Assembly.
After forming the Cabinet, he is highly expected to recommend dissolving the Assembly and call for fresh polls, they said. Constitutional experts are still divided over the constitutional court ruling, with some calling on the government to challenge the ruling while others insist this cannot happen under Kuwaiti law. Political analyst Abdulrazzak Al-Shayeji said on Twitter on Tuesday that the prime minister has only two options to resolve the political crisis. Either he challenges the constitutional court ruling in a bid to revive the 2022 Assembly, or after forming the new Cabinet, recommend dissolving the 2020 National Assembly and calling for fresh polls.