Only four ministers of the outgoing cabinet deserve to be retained in the new government and that at least 10 members of the cabinet should be dropped" Muslim said in a statement. Several opposition MPs have during the campaign and after the election clearly demanded that all members of the outgoing cabinet should be dropped because they were behind the resignation letter that eventually led to the dissolution of the previous national assembly.
But although the prime minister has shrouded his efforts of forming the cabinet with secrecy, reports indicate that the new cabinet will almost retain half of the outgoing cabinet if not more. Muslim also called on the prime minister to consult political groupings and parliamentary blocs in preparing the government program in order to ensure stability.
Islamist MP Adel Al-Saraawi warned against appointing MPs who won through tribal primaries into the cabinet, saying that this does not serve a reformist policy. Eighteen of the 24 MPs who won because of tribal affiliations were elected to the assembly only after contesting their respective tribes’ primary election. They represent the most of country’s powerful tribes. They include four MPs each from the Mutairi, Rashayda and Ajmans, five from Awazem and one from Hajeri.
The outgoing cabinet included one minister, commerce and industry minister Falah Al-Hajeri, who won the 2006 elections through tribal primaries. Islamist MP Jamaan Al-Harbash called on the premier to adopt the principle of "competence and ability" in appointing the ministers. Harbash said the issue of the ministry of defense will be at the top of his priorities in the current legislative term.
But he did not elaborate. Before dissolving the national assembly, the lawmaker has asked a number of questions to the defense minister regarding armament issues with the army. Independent MP Ali Al-Hajeri said that the issue of raising salaries of Kuwaitis by KD 50 monthly will be brought up again in the new national assembly. The proposed raise was said to be one of the reasons for dissolving the previous national assembly.
In a related development, at least 16 candidates who lost the elections are preparing to officially challenge the outcome of the elections to the constitutional court this week. The candidates are not challenging any irregularities in the election but the counting of votes which they claim has been marred with mistakes that could alter the final outcome. Counting in the election was manual as had been the case in previous elections. This time however instead of writing the results of candidates on a board manually, a computer program was used to show the results on large LCD screens.
Results were being shown live on state-run Kuwait TV and other private stations. But the final results announced by presiding judges showed major discrepancies from the results that were shown on TV stations which they got their results from the screens. Judges based their results on official counting done on official forms but candidates said that some mistakes may have happened and are demanding a recount and not re-election. The court is expected to start deliberations as soon as it receives the challenges.
