Kuwait: Parliament session adjourned as MPs sit in ministers’ chairs
Opposition trying to reverse move to postpone interrogations of Prime Minister
Kuwait City: In an effort to prevent the session from going forward until the Prime Minister, Sabah Al Khaled Al Sabah is questioned, several Kuwaiti MPs sat in the ministers’ seats on Tuesday as a form of protest.
Right before the session was supposed to commence, speaker of parliament, Marzouq Al Ghanim, said, “The government has informed me that they will not be attending the session because the MPs sat in their seats, therefore the session is adjourned.”
Al Ghanim added that they will be holding a special session on Thursday to swear in the newly elected MP Dr. Obaid Al Wasmi and discuss the following issues: rewarding frontline workers, the issue of Palestine and the fate of in-person exams for students.
Heightened tensions
The move comes after two months of heightened tensions between the government and opposition figures, who claim that the vote to postpone all previous and upcoming interrogations against the Prime Minister for a year and a half is unconstitutional and a breach of the parliaments internal procedures law.
This is not the first session that has been adjourned, as the opposition has made it clear that they will not be moving forward with any session until Sabah Al Khaled is interrogated.
Hours before Tuesday’s session was supposed to be held, 24 out of the 50 elected members of parliament tweeted, “No session unless the Prime Minister goes up to the podium.”
Removal of both heads
While the opposition has been working on ensuring that the Prime Minister is interrogated, they are also trying to remove Al Ghanim from his position as head of parliament.
On Tuesday, 25 MPs signed a proposal filed by MP Dr. Abdulaziz Al Saqoubi, that calls for holding a special session on Thursday to amend article 72 of the parliament’s internal procedural law to allow MPs to excuse the head of parliament from his position.
Previously, the opposition had accused Al Ghanim of “breaching the constitution” and 30 MPs publicly declared their support to remove him as speaker.
Al Ghanim was reappointed as speaker of parliament back in December 2020, after a slim victory over MP Bader Al Humaidi, who was backed by the opposition.