Kuwait’s Cabinet has asked the country’s ruler to consider dissolving Parliament, state news agency KUNA reported yesterday, in a widely expected bid to clear the way for a new election and end months of political deadlock. Kuwait has been unable to hold a parliamentary session for several months after its Constitutional Court effectively dissolved the opposition-dominated assembly which was elected in February, basing its decision on a technicality. The ruling in June reinstated the previous Parliament, originally elected in 2009 and which contained more government supporters, but the body has not been able to convene due to a boycott by lawmakers.
“A draft decree to dissolve the 2009 parliament was submitted to the emir … because it was not possible to hold sessions of the National Assembly due to a lack of quorum,” Information Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah was reported as saying. The 2009 pro-government Parliament was dissolved in December after youth-led street protests and allegations of corruption against some of its members but was reinstated by the constitutional court in a June 20 ruling.