Manama: Kuwait has averted a major political crisis that loomed as a litmus test for relations between the government and the parliament after two ministers survived no-confidence votes on Thursday.
Kuwait’s Oil Minister Bakheet Al Rashidi breezed through the no-confidence vote after 34 lawmakers voted in his favour and 11 against him while Social Affairs and Labour and State Minister for Economic Affairs Hind Al Sabeeh was supported by 28 MPs and opposed by 12. Five of the lawmakers opted not to respond.
Parliament Speaker Marzooq Al Ghanem said that 45 lawmakers were present at the session and he called on each of them to state their position twice, first at the end of the debate over Al Rashidi and a second time following the discussion regarding Al Sabeeh.
At least 25 out of the 50 lawmakers comprising the parliament were needed to oust each of the ministers who went last week through grueling quizzings that lasted several hours as they responded to allegations of financial and administrative irregularities.
Lawmakers Omar Al Tabtabaei and Abdul Wahab Al Babtain, considered as from the opposition, charged that the oil minister, who had been in office for less than five months, and some top oil executives caused losses worth billions to the state budget.
Al Rashidi refuted the claims and insisted that the mega projects mentioned in the allegations were proceeding as per schedule.
At the end of the grilling last week, 10 lawmakers, the required minimum, filed a motion to have him ousted from the government.
Al Sabeeh had to face the no-confidence vote after MP Saleh Ashour filed to quiz her over allegations of abusing the law to dissolve non-governmental organisations and cooperative societies, failing to enforce necessary policies to restructure Kuwait’s demographics and failing to apply development plans to bolster the national economy.
She was quizzed last week and 10 lawmakers filed the no-confidence motion to have her removed from the cabinet.
Throughout this week, lawmakers who opposed the ministers had argued for support to have the minister replaced.
The government has said that it had full confidence in both ministers and that they would pass the vote.
For Al Sabeeh, the renewal of the parliament’s confidence in her is the second one in three months.
In February, she easily survived through a no-confidence motion charging financial and administrative irregularities in her ministry after 29 lawmakers voted for her and 13 against her.
Kuwaitis will be breathing more easily now that the two no-confidence vote were defeated, an outcome that prevented a further strain on the tense relations between the government and the parliament, and could have resulted in the Emir calling for early elections.
The sitting parliament was elected in November and the government was formed in December.
The last bitter standoff between them in October 2017 led to the dissolution of the parliament to head off a no-confidence vote in acting Information Minister Shaikh Mohammad Al Abdullah Al Sabah over budget issues.
The parliament also had plans to question other ministers as well, exacerbating the political turmoil in the northern Arabian Gulf country.
Only six elected parliaments lasted their full terms since constitutional life was launched in 1962 while 55 parliaments were dissolved for different reasons.
