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Kuwait: Court Rejects Appeal to Dissolve Parliament | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Inside Kuwait Parliament (Image courtesy KUNA)


Kuwait – Kuwait’s Constitutional Court rejected on Wednesday the petition to annul the parliamentary elections of 2016, upholding the current legislative term.

The court also rejected 47 appeals against the results of the last elections, declared Faraj al-Arbeed as the winner of the elections and cancelled the membership of Marzouq al-Khalifa.

With this decision, the National Assembly averted the crisis of annulment that has been looming since the 2016 elections.

The Assembly has been dissolved ten times since it was originally formed in 1963. The first was in 1976 and the last in 2016 when Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah issued a decree to dissolve the assembly after several lawmakers submitted requests to debrief the Ministers of Finance and Justice.

On November 26, the Assembly held elections when 50 MPs representing the five constituencies won.

The court pointed out that the procedures for dissolving the previous parliament and call for new elections are correct. It added that any error or miscount of a certain candidate’s votes doesn’t affect the results of the whole elections, but rather that of this specific MP and it is the court’s duty to correct the inaccuracy.

The court didn’t accept 10 challenges and rejected 42 other appeals on the 2016 elections.

Justice Minister Faleh al-Azeb predicted the court’s decision to stabilize relations between the government and the parliament. He asserted the court ruling confirms that the government’s decisions to dissolve the previous Parliament and call for elections were sound.

“We believe everyone will calm down and we are now headed towards achievements,” Azeb added.

Speaking at a press conference, Azeb said that the relations between the two authorities are a bit rocky, but hoped that after the decision things would settle. He indicated that both authorities will do what is best for the country and its people.

Assembly Speaker Marzouk al-Ghanim welcomed the verdict saying it will pave the way for political stability in the country. He said that the court’s decisions are always respected by everyone.

Ghanim reiterated the importance of everyone working together to ensure stability, and restated his request for both executive and legislative authorities of cooperating according to Article 50 of the Kuwaiti constitution to help find a solution for all issues that concerns the people.