US embassy cable - 05KUWAIT3363

UNCLAS KUWAIT 003363 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARPI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, KDEM, KU, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY 
SUBJECT: SPECIAL PARLIAMENTARY SESSION: NO QUORUM, BUT 
PLENTY OF POLITICAL POSTURING 
 
1.  (U)  An extraordinary session of Parliament held July 30 
at the written request of 36 Members of Parliament (MPs) 
failed to reach the required quorum of 33 MPs/Ministers 
present.  An unusual request while Parliament is not in 
session and many MPs are abroad on vacation, the 
extraordinary session was called to discuss amendments to a 
2005 social security law.  The English daily Arab Times 
reported July 29 that more than 20 of the 36 MPs requesting 
the session were currently out of the country and were not 
planning on returning for the session.  One of the MPs 
contacted by Kuwait Times prior to the session said, "My 
colleagues urged me not to come back saying the session won't 
be held due to lack of quorum."  The session was initially 
delayed when only 29 MPs and two Ministers attended.  After a 
thirty-minute delay in an attempt to reach quorum, 31 MPs 
were found present, but the two Ministers, Public Works 
Minster Badr Al-Humaidi and Minister of State for Cabinet 
Affairs and for National Assembly Affairs Mohammed Sharar, 
were absent.  Acting National Assembly Speaker, Adel 
Al-Sarawi, finally adjourned the session due to lack of 
quorum. 
 
2.  (SBU)  Comment: MPs most likely called the July 30 
extraordinary session in an attempt to embarrass the GOK for 
failure to move on social policies, rather than to address 
the non-urgent issue of Kuwaiti pension funds.  The 
Government and the MPs will fault each other for the lack of 
quorum claiming the other failed to turn up.  This session 
highlighted, in an unusually unseasonal meeting of 
Parliament, the continued political jockeying between the 
government and the National Assembly.  End comment. 
 
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