Kuwait emir reappoints Sheikh Ahmad as prime minister following elections

Kuwait’s Crown Prince reappointed Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al Ahmad as Prime Minister and tasked him with naming a new cabinet before the newly elected parliament‘s inaugural session next week.

The Prime Minister’s previous government resigned following parliamentary elections earlier this month as part of customary protocol.

In the lead-up to the emiri decree reappointing Sheikh Ahmad, Crown Prince Sheikh Meshal Al Ahmad on Tuesday met former prime ministers as well as former speakers of parliament as part of customary consultations.

Sheikh Ahmad is expected to form a new cabinet on Wednesday or Thursday made up largely of the same ministers who held posts in his last government, according to sources.

The newly appointed cabinet is expected to include at least one of the elected members of parliament as a confidence-building measure with the National Assembly.

Parliament will hold its inaugural session on June 20 when MPs and the new government take the oath of office. Sheikh Meshal is expected to attend and give a speech.

The latest move comes after 47 MPs held their second informal meeting at the National Assembly on Tuesday and unanimously approved their road map for political and electoral reforms.

Two MPs who did not attend the meeting also declared their support for the plan.

A long-running standoff between the government and the elected parliament has hampered efforts by the wealthy Gulf Arab oil producer to push through fiscal reforms, including a debt law allowing Kuwait to tap international markets.

Kuwaitis voted on June 6 in their seventh general election in just over a decade, and their third in three years following tensions between the elected parliament and appointed government, when the Emir dissolved the assembly twice.

The September 2022 elections were nullified in March and parliament elected in 2020 was reinstated following a Constitutional Court order. In May, the Emir dissolved that parliament again to hold another election.

Updated: June 14, 2023, 12:53 PM