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Kuwait City: Kuwait's Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah on Wednesday dissolved the parliament citing "irresponsible conduct" and issued a decree calling for elections on May 17.
"In order to preserve the unity of the nation ... I decided to dissolve parliament and call on the Kuwaiti people to elect a parliament," Shaikh Sabah said in a televised speech. State TV channels then quoted Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Faisal Al Haji as saying the new elections will be held on May 17.
Kuwait plunged into crisis when all 14 members of the country's Cabinet on Monday submitted their resignations to the prime minister, Shaikh Nasser Al Mohammad Al Sabah, complaining that lawmakers were "interfering" in their work and preventing them from carrying out their duties.
The government and the 50-seat house have been at loggerheads over many issues, including a pay hike for civil servants which the government objects to on the grounds that it has already given them enough of a raise. The Cabinet has also rejected a parliament bill that requires the state to pay off consumer debts of private citizens.
The order represents the second time Shaikh Sabah has dissolved the house, and the fifth such a dissolution in the nation's 46 years of democracy.
Earlier yesterday, the emir held talks with parliament speaker Jassem Al Khorafi and other leaders including the Crown Prince, the Prime Minister and the First Deputy Premier and Defence Minister.
Recurring crisis
The talks were held after Shaikh Sabah cut short a foreign visit and returned home to settle the political crisis between the government and the opposition-dominated parliament. "It is unfair to hold parliament responsible for all the negative issues because ministers also contributed to the crisis," Al Khorafi told reporters outside parliament.
Kuwaiti analysts yesterday said that neither dissolving parliament nor sacking the government would resolve the chronic political dilemmas. "The crisis will not be resolved by sacking the government or its head. It wil not be resolved by dissolving parliament ... or even by suspending democratic life," columnist Madhi Al Khamees wrote in Awan daily.
"We badly need to establish a party system under which the government is formed from parliament on the basis of a clear programme," Khalid Al Ali said in Al Wasat newspaper.
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