Kuwait City:

Kuwait’s emir on Saturday named a new crown prince, Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Hamad al-Sabah, state media reported, just six months after taking over the throne and weeks after suspending parliament.

The 71-year-old sheikh was the Gulf state’s foreign minister from 2011 to 2019 and then prime minister until 2022.

Kuwait entered new political turbulence in May when the 83-year-old emir, Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Sabah, dissolved parliament just six weeks after elections. He also suspended some provisions of the constitution.

He then named the second government since he took over as head of state in December.

Unlike other Gulf states, Kuwait has an influential parliament while most power remains with the royal family.

While lawmakers have powers their regular battles with the government causes repeat crises.

Kuwait has about seven percent of global oil reserves and one of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds. But it has struggled in recent years to diversify its economy away from reliance on oil.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kuwait City:

Kuwait’s emir on Saturday named a new crown prince, Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Hamad al-Sabah, state media reported, just six months after taking over the throne and weeks after suspending parliament.

The 71-year-old sheikh was the Gulf state’s foreign minister from 2011 to 2019 and then prime minister until 2022.

Kuwait entered new political turbulence in May when the 83-year-old emir, Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Sabah, dissolved parliament just six weeks after elections. He also suspended some provisions of the constitution.

He then named the second government since he took over as head of state in December.

Unlike other Gulf states, Kuwait has an influential parliament while most power remains with the royal family.

While lawmakers have powers their regular battles with the government causes repeat crises.

Kuwait has about seven percent of global oil reserves and one of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds. But it has struggled in recent years to diversify its economy away from reliance on oil.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Chennai:

The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday requested the Centre to secure through diplomatic channels the release of four fishermen from the state detained by the Kuwait Coastal Police.

The men belonging to Ramanthapuram district have been incarcerated in the prison there since their arrest on December 5, last year and Chief Minister M K Stalin had already flagged their arrest and demanded their immediate release, state Chief Secretary Shiv Das Meena said.

In a release, he reminded that the chief minister had in a letter dated February 9, sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention in ensuring the release of the fishermen by initiating diplomatic efforts.

“Since the men have not been released despite the state government’s repeated insistence, the Chief Secretary wrote a reminder letter to the External Affairs Secretary in this regard,” the release said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Candidate Mohannad al-Sayer (C) celebrates with supporters after his victory as a member of parliament in the legislative elections in Kuwait City early on April 5, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Opposition lawmakers maintained a majority in Kuwait’s parliament, results showed on April 5, after the Gulf state’s third parliamentary vote in as many years held just months into the new emir’s reign.

Opposition candidates won 29 seats in the 50-member Assembly, according to results carried by the official KUNA news agency, matching the outcome of last year’s election.

The make-up of the new parliament is very similar to the outgoing one, with all but 11 lawmakers retaining their seats.

“No radical change was expected in the results,” said Bader al-Saif, assistant professor of history at Kuwait University.

“This is one of the lowest change ratios,” he told AFP.

Parliamentary elections have become an annual occurrence for the OPEC member, which has seven percent of the world’s oil reserves and the monarchical Gulf’s most powerful elected assembly.

However, clashes between the national assembly and the royal-appointed cabinet have caused constant stalemate, delaying much-needed reforms.

With little change to the parliamentary line-up, the political impasse is expected to continue, according to Saif.

“A new showdown is in the making,” he said, adding that “some of the new faces are quite outspoken”.

Thursday’s election was the first to be held under the new emir, Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

Turnout was around 62% after polling stations closed at midnight, the information ministry said.

Sheikh Meshal, formerly the world’s oldest crown prince, came to power aged 83 in December after the death of his half-brother and predecessor, Sheikh Nawaf.

He took aim at both the cabinet and parliament in his inaugural speech to the assembly, before announcing an era of “reform” as he picked Kuwait’s first Foreign Minister from outside the ruling family.

But in February, the national assembly was dissolved once again, a royal decree accusing it of constitutional violations including “offensive and inappropriate language”, after a lawmaker responded to the emir’s criticism.

Thursday’s election — the third since 2022 and the fourth in five years — was different in that the new parliament will be tasked with approving Sheikh Meshal’s choice of crown prince, Kuwait’s future emir.

If the Assembly takes the unprecedented step of rejecting his heir, Sheikh Meshal will submit three candidates for parliamentarians to choose from.