DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: The government of Kuwait resigned on Tuesday, just months after its formation, opening up new tension as the tiny country wrestles with a worsening political crisis that has blocked critical economic and social reforms.
According to the sources, Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al Hamad Al Sabah submitted the cabinet’s resignation to the crown prince ahead of a no-confidence vote in Parliament later this week that aimed to remove him from office.
It marks Kuwait’s third collective administration resignation in one and half years. A host of all new faces, including some picks to calm opposition blocs, had been appointed to ministerial posts as recently as December. Their resignation now reflects their failure to make reforms.
Sheikh Sabah’s detractors have grown in number. Last week, angry lawmakers summoned him for extensive questioning about his alleged corruption and mismanagement. They publicly declared him “unsuitable” and demanded a new prime minister to address the country’s problems and implement much-needed reforms.
Cabinet’s resignation comes after the resignations of the defense and interior ministers earlier this year. Exasperated, the two senior ministers lamented their inability to achieve anything in oil-rich Kuwait due to Parliament’s raucous opposition. In recent months, lawmakers have increasingly expressed their political frustrations and mistrust by questioning various unpopular ministers and stalling significant projects.
Although skyrocketing oil prices because of Russia’s war in Ukraine have recently formed a windfall for Kuwait, they’ve also served to remind the nation’s utter dependence on oil revenues, and they want to diversify. Even if the Global Monetary Fund now hopes Kuwait in order to carry a budget remains after years in the red and see its GDP increase by 2.7%, it remains politically stuck.
Years of low oil prices collaborated with the coronavirus pandemic, driving the country’s current account deficit to 16.6 percent of GDP last year. As the country’s financial situation worsened, the government could not draw on Kuwait’s large sovereign wealth fund or issue debt because lawmakers had blocked the passage of a public debt law.
A rareness in the autocratic region of Persian Gulf sheikhdoms, the Parliament, is authorised to pass and block laws, question ministers, and propose no-confidence votes against senior officials. In contrast, final authority rests with the ruling emir.
The stagnation has spread profound public disillusionment with the country’s political system.
“The Kuwaiti people are tired and coming to a scary level of despair,” significant academic Ibtihal Al-Khatib noted in an editorial for the Arabic language Alhurra news website.