Kuwait: new general elections in an emirate in the midst of a political crisis

Kuwait is preparing to vote again to elect their MPs on Tuesday, June 6. This Gulf oil monarchy has been living in a state of permanent political crisis for several years.

The Kuwaiti parliament in the country's capital, Kuwait, on October 30, 2018. Yasser Al-Zayyat / AFP

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Will these elections allow Kuwait to break the political deadlock? " wondered a newspaper in the region on the eve of this election. The seventh in just over a decade.

An oil emirate with less than 5 million inhabitants, Kuwait is one of the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, but it has one singularity: an elected and particularly restless Parliament. 50 MPs, some of whom do not hesitate to define themselves as "opponents". A political landscape that contrasts with what we observe in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and other neighboring monarchies of Kuwait.

But Kuwait remains an absolute monarchy ruled by the al-Sabah dynasty and parliament never emerges victorious from its tug-of-war with the government. In March 2023, the Constitutional Court invalidated the 2022 parliamentary elections, ruling in favour of restoring the previous Parliament, resulting from the 2020 election. These two legislative elections were won by the opposition, particularly the Islamist. In early April, the small monarchy formed its seventh government in three years, and a few days later, the emir of Kuwait dissolved parliament and called new legislative elections. The opposition, which had boycotted the elections for ten years before 2022 because denouncing executive interference in the legislature, will participate again in the election on Tuesday.

And in the country, many are worried about the economic consequences of this permanent crisis that hinders any reform. Sitting on nearly 7% of the world's crude reserves, Kuwaitis regularly complain about the deterioration of infrastructure and public services in this country of nearly 4.5 million people.

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