Kuwaiti's Emir dissolves parliament paving way for elections

The emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Sabah, has issued a decree today dissolving the Kuwaiti National Assembly, according to the official state news agency KUNA.

The dissolution sets the stage for an early election. The dissolution was announced after an emergency government meeting. The emir said that because of the circumstances in the region and security challenges, that he had ordered that the 50-member legislature be dissolved. The emir's move comes less than 24 hours after the speaker of the parliament Marzouk al-Ghanem called for new elections in the face of security and economic challenges.

Kuwait is a constitutional monarchy with the emir having power to appoint the PM who appoints government ministers but compared to most other Gulf Cooperation Council states it is more liberal and the legislature has considerable power. A BBC article claims:Kuwait's parliament has the most powers of any elected body in the Gulf region, but the ruling al-Sabah family has the final word over all key decisions and has dissolved the legislature repeatedly in the past.Kuwait shares borders with Iraq and Saudi Arabia. As of 2014 it had a population of 4.2 million people but only 1.3 million are Kuwaitis with 2.9 million being expatriates.

The cabinet also resigned after the parliament was dissolved. There has been a dispute between the government and the parliament over price increases in fuel in the country. However, there are also claims of administrative and financial violations. Although no date was set for the new elections, the constitution says that they must take place within two months of the parliament being dissolved. The country faces declining revenues as oil prices have dropped leading to the government to cut back on the many subsidies enjoyed by Kuwaiti residents. This has stirred a popular backlash. Kuwait is a major oil producer.

Recently Kuwait has had attacks by the Islamic State(IS). On October 8 an Egyptian IS supporter drove a garbage truck loaded with explosives into a truck carrying five U.S. soldiers but the attack ended up just wounding the attacker. However in 2015 IS carried out a suicide bombing of a Shia mosque that killed 27 and wounded scores more.