KUWAIT, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Kuwait's ruler urged
parliament on Wednesday to work with the cabinet following a
snap election intended to kick-start long-overdue economic
reforms in the oil-producing Gulf state.
Lawmakers critical of the government, who seized a majority
in this month's vote, elected one of their own, Ahmed
al-Saadoun, as speaker at parliament's opening session,
reflecting their new-found strength.
Political parties are not allowed in Kuwait, making
religious and kinship ties the most effective means of
mobilising support and preventing the emergence of any unified
or coherent opposition. Talks aimed at including a significant
number of critical MPs in the cabinet failed this week.
Years of bickering have held up infrastructure and
development projects aimed at reducing the economy's dependence
on oil, and turned Kuwait from Gulf trailblazer to laggard.
Popular frustration has grown, but generous welfare handouts
have enabled Kuwait to shield itself from the kind of discontent
that spurred uprisings across the Arab world last year.
"We ask you to play a positive and effective role and to
cooperate with your brothers in the executive," the emir, Sheikh
Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, told parliament, the fourth to convene
in six years.
"Fixing the faults in the structure of the national economy
by diversifying sources of income and creating job opportunities
for our children must be at the top of your priorities."
A standoff between parliament and the cabinet - named by a
prime minister picked by the emir - came to a head late last
year when protesters goaded by opposition MPs stormed the
chamber demanding the resignation of the premier, whom they
accused of corruption.
The cabinet resigned and Sheikh Sabah called an election in
which members openly critical of the government, many of them
Islamists, took around two-thirds of the 50 seats up for grabs.
A new cabinet was formed on Tuesday under Prime Minister
Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah. But expectations that a
substantial number of critical MPs would be given posts to try
to ease the deadlock were dashed when the ruling family and
parliament failed to reach an agreement.
Sheikh Sabah told parliament: "Kuwait is expecting you to
... rise to the challenge of internal reform and comprehensive
development and to confront the dangerous changes in the
international arena and the bloody struggles that are afflicting
the region, knowing full well their effect and threat to our
country."
Despite opposition lawmakers' gains in parliament, divisions
between them were laid bare in a row over whether the vote for
speaker should be conducted electronically or on paper.
The lawmaker who chaired the opening session had to tell MPs
waving their fists and shouting to calm down and let him speak.
(Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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