How does Kuwait’s National Assembly function ?
Kuwait has 25 election districts, each of which elects two members. Thus, the National Assembly has 50 elected members. In addition, it has between 11 and 16 other members, that is, cabinet ministers who serve ex-officio in the National Assembly.
The Constitution does not allude to the creation of political parties, neither approving of nor prohibiting them. In theory, the government does not allow them to exist, though political “groups” (tajammuat) with overt political views do exist and fulfill the role of parties elsewhere.
They cannot, however, form a government; that is the right of the Prime Minister, who is appointed by HH the Amir. Kuwait’s first parliamentary election took place in 1963, and it’s most recent occurred in July 1999. Members of the ruling family do not run for office, so the Prime Minister is never an elected member of the assembly.
Kuwait’s Constitution makes all cabinet officers also members of the Assembly with full voting rights; the Assembly has 61 members, 50 elected and 11 appointed.
Members are elected to four-year terms and the entire body stands for election at the same time. HH the Amir has the power to adjourn the Assembly for a period not exceeding one month and may also dissolve the Assembly and call for new elections within two months.
The Constitution also permits the assembly to cast a vote of no confidence in a master; question ministers and investigate government conduct; establish investigate committees; and discuss any issue that it finds appropriate.
By authority of a law passed after Liberation, the Assembly’s Accounting Office provinces independent Supervision of expenditures of public funds.
The Constitution also empowers the National Assembly to overturn any Amiri decrees made during the dissolution, and the Assembly has exercised this right on occasion. The Parliament can also veto a law proposed by the government or impose a law rejected by the government. No bill becomes law in Kuwait without parliamentary.
