By B Izzak

KUWAIT: National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem yesterday said the ministry of health informed him that two MPs have tested positive for the coronavirus, and as a result tomorrow's session will most likely be cancelled. Ghanem said the Assembly office will meet today to discuss the issue, and expected it will decide to postpone the regular session this week until next week.

He said the health ministry also informed him that it will test all MPs and Assembly staff on Saturday because at least seven days should have passed after any contact with infected people. The names of the two infected lawmakers were not disclosed, but MP Al-Humaidi Al-Subaei said he learnt that one of them is MP Abdulwahab Al-Babtain.

The Assembly was expected to debate two grillings against HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah filed by MPs Abdulkarim Al-Kandari and Subaie for alleged mismanagement of state affairs. It has not been disclosed whether the prime minister will accept to face the grilling in public or in a closed session, or could ask the grillings to be studied by the Assembly's legal and legislative committee to examine if they breach the constitution.

MP Kandari said he heard that the premier is not willing to face the grilling and would rather use the same tools used by former premiers, which include referring the grilling to the legal panel or even to the constitutional court. He called on the prime minister to face the grilling in a public session so all the people can hear his defense. MP Subaei also criticized the government's request to postpone the Assembly session using the "pretext of coronavirus", and called for holding the session to conduct the grillings.

Meanwhile, major tribes continued to hold tribal primaries to elect their candidates for the forthcoming parliamentary elections expected to be held in November. Tribal primaries are banned by law but bedouin tribes hold them to boost their chances of winning more seats in the Assembly by fielding a small number of candidates.

Also yesterday, MP Riyadh Al-Adasani said 12 lawmakers are implicated in the case of inflated bank accounts. He urged the government to take legal actions against them by referring the cases to the public prosecution.