Kuwaitis head to the polls on May 16 for the second time in a year after the emir dissolved parliament in March when MPs filed three requests to question Prime Minister Shaikh Nasser Mohammed al-Ahmad al-Sabah.
Hussein Al Qallaf, a former MP from the mainly Sunni emirate’s Shia minority who is standing again in this month’s election, said the demands to grill the premier were the result of infighting within the ruling family, which controls all key cabinet posts.
“The main problem behind the questioning of Sheikh Nasser was infighting within the (ruling) family,” Qallaf told an election rally this week.
“Ruling family members should be alert towards those who are trying to fish in troubled waters… Kuwaiti people love the ruling family,” he said.
Former liberal MP Marzouk al-Ghanem said infighting among members of the ruling family was a “major cause of the lingering political crises” in the emirate.
Former MP Ahmed al-Shuraian called on the ruling family to unite and to change its behaviour.
“Differences within the ruling family has been a major contributor to public frustration. These disputes must be resolved by the family we love,” Shuraian told a campaign rally.
The Al-Sabahs have dominated Kuwaiti affairs ever since the emirate’s creation 250 years ago, and Kuwaitis have seldom questioned the family’s rule.
In 2006, a power struggle among the Al-Sabahs resulted in an unprecedented vote by the elected parliament to remove the then emir, Shaikh Saad Abdullah al-Sabah, on health grounds.
Last month, two candidates were arrested and detained for publicly criticising the ruling family. Their cases have been referred to court.
Also, the public prosecutor last month questioned four candidates on suspicion of insulting the ruling family after lawyer Fawziya al-Sabah, a member of the ruling family, filed lawsuits against them.
The emir, crown prince and prime minister are all from the ruling family, which also controls the key ministerial porfolios of defence, interior, information and foreign affairs.
