History of government resignations in Kuwait

By Ibrahim El-Khazen

KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait (AA) – Kuwait has seen a spate of government resignations in recent years amid disputes with lawmakers over the questioning of ministers.

The latest resignations came last week when Defense Minister Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al-Ali and Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmed Al-Mansour resigned in protest of the manner of parliamentary questioning of ministers.

The phenomenon, however, was not new. The oil-rich Gulf country has seen the resignation of 11 governments and the dismissal of 16 cabinets over the past 37 years.

Anadolu Agency monitored the website of the National Assembly (Parliament) and local media to trace the history of questioning of ministers by lawmakers and government resignations in Kuwait.

- History of questioning

Questioning is a constitutional and parliamentary right granted to lawmakers in Kuwait to grill a prime minister or ministers and overthrow them, a rare case among Gulf countries.

Between 1963 when the first parliament was formed until the latest resignations last week, the total number of questioning by parliamentarians reached 128.
Questioning happened once in each of the years 1963, 1964, 1968, 1973, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, and 2012.

The years 1974, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006 2008, 2016, and 2022 (to date) witnessed two questionings of ministers each.

Meanwhile, three questionings of ministers by lawmakers took place in each of the years 2002, 2010, and 2014, and four in 1986 and 2004.

Five questionings of ministers took place in each of 2007, 2015, and 2017, eight in 2009 and 2018, nine in 2011 and 2020, ten in 2013 and 2019, and 11 in 2021.

In total, the parliamentary questioning resulted in the change of 16 ministers and 11 governments in Kuwait.

*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar in Ankara