KUWAIT: The following is a report on major events related to the National Assembly throughout 2021:
March 3: The Constitutional Court rejected an appeal on illegality of the December 2020 elections.
March 14: The Constitutional Court annulled membership of MP Bader Al-Dahoum.
March 30: The National Assembly commenced its regular session after a one-month suspension based on an Amiri decree. Cabinet members sworn in before the house.
March 30: The National Assembly approved a request by His Highness the Prime Minister to adjourn interpellations submitted against him until the end of the Assembly’s second term. It also approved an optional six-month grace period for citizens with financial commitments to various institutions, local banks and financial bodies under the umbrella of the Central Bank of Kuwait.
March 30: The National Assembly rejected in principle a parliamentary report on amnesty. Nevertheless, it approved two bills on preventive detention and free speech.
April 13: Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem announced the assembly’s rejection of parliamentary request to postpone the Prime Minister’s grilling until the end of the second ordinary session.
April 13: The National Assembly postponed the interpellation of Health Minister Sheikh Dr Basel Al-Sabah for two weeks.
May 2: National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem received a grilling motion from MP Shuaib Al-Muwaizri against Foreign Minister and state cabinet Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Sabah and Finance Minister Khalifah Hamada.
May 22: Kuwait’s Fifth Constituency voters headed to polling stations to choose their representative among 15 candidates in the 16th by-election in Kuwait parliament’s history.
May 23: Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem received a grilling motion from MP Shuaib Al-Muwaizri against His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled.
May 23: The electoral committee of the Fifth Constituency announced Obaid Al-Wasmi winner of the 2021 parliamentary by-elections with 43,810 votes.
May 26: MPs Thamer Al-Dhafiri, Khaled Al-Otaibi and Abdulkareem Al-Kanderi submitted a grilling motion to the Interior Minister Sheikh Thamer Ali Al-Sabah.
May 27: The National Assembly approved a bill to add appropriations for state budget for the fiscal year 2020-2021 for frontline workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
June 9: Kuwaiti Parliament Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem arrived in Geneva to hold talks with President of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) Duarte Pacheco on Palestine.
June 22: Kuwait’s National Assembly approved in a special session state budget for the fiscal year 2021-2022 and referred the bill to the government.
June 23: National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem arrived in Brussels for a two-day visit, and met representative of Arab parliaments, European Parliament President David Sassoli and Belgian Parliament Speaker Eliane Tello.
June 29: Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem called for a parliamentary session to discuss Kuwait’s financial status before ending the Parliament’s 16th legislative term.
Oct 26: The National Assembly selected MP Osama Al-Shaheen as Observer and MP Farz Al-Daihani as Secretary.
Nov 9: Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem adjourned a session following the government’s resignation. — KUNA