KUWAIT CITY, Aug 6: Speaker of Parliament Jassem Al-Kharafi condemned threats by the opposition Majority Bloc to protest in the streets if the electoral system is referred to the Constitutional Court. “Whoever is of the opinion that the language of threats will yield results is mistaken,” he stated.
Al-Kharafi said the only way to end the crisis is by adhering to the directions of HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. He predicted that HH the Amir will not hasten the decision to dissolve the 2009 Assembly before forming a complete picture of Kuwait’s interests.

Reports circulated that the Cabinet on Monday referred the five constituency charter to the Constitutional Court despite warnings by the opposition that the move will “take the country into a dark tunnel”. However, the Cabinet did not formally confirm or refute the reports and government sources denied that a decision was taken by the Cabinet on the matter, adding that the move has been postponed to a later date.
MP Musallam Al-Barrak and a number of opposition MPs have warned the Cabinet of the decision to refer to the Constitutional Court. They believe the government will unfairly divide the electoral constituencies and warned that referring the matter to the Constitutional Court will be “the beginning of the crisis not its end.” According to the opposition, supporters of the “people are the source of power” petition have reached 20,000.

Al-Barrak said that, if constituencies change, it will take the country into a dark tunnel and the opposition “will take to the streets and will not return to their homes”.

Furthermore, member of the annulled 2012 Assembly, Abdullatif Al-Amiri stressed that the referral to the court is to find justification to prevent the dissolution of the 2009 Assembly. “They will wait for the court’s ruling on the constituencies which will take several months,” he lamented.

He indicated that emergency decrees can only take place in two situations, if the parliament is dissolved or during a parliament recession. He predicted that the parliament will not be dissolved, adding that the adoption of the annual budget will remain suspended as long as MPs are not attending sessions.
Meanwhile, MP Abdullah Al-Roumi said the National Action Bloc (NAB) will attend Tuesday’s parliament session despite its predicted early adjournment due to lack of quorum. Only six lawmakers attended last week’s session — the NAB, MP Salwa Al-Jasser and the Parliament Speaker — and only five Cabinet ministers.

Al-Roumi explained that the bloc’s attendance is consistent with its previous statement on the need to implement the Constitutional Court’s ruling to annul the decree dissolving the 2009 Assembly.

Furthermore, MP Yousef Al-Zalzalah stated he will not attend the session, stressing that constitutional experts agree on the unconstitutionality of the current five constituency system. He said that the amendment of constituencies has become inevitable. MP Salwa Al-Jassar also said she will be absent from Tuesday’s session due to the death of her aunt.