A parliament that really matters

AMONG all the monarchies of the Gulf, Kuwait has easily the most powerful parliament—up to the point where it collides directly with the interests of the ruling Al Sabah family. This has led with increasing frequency to its summary dissolution. On June 20th it happened again—for the fifth time in six years. But the reaction was a lot more robust than before. Many Kuwaitis are fed up with voting for another bunch of candidates who are unlikely to survive long enough in office to get anything done. A week after the latest dissolution 30,000-odd Kuwaitis protested in the capital city. Opposition leaders called for parliament's reinstatement, a constitutional monarchy and full democracy. No such things exist anywhere else in the Gulf.

On paper it was a court, not the ruling emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, that ordered the latest dissolution. But the court had probably been leant on, because the emir had just suspended parliament for a month after members of it had threatened to haul in the interior minister for questioning on some embarrassing matters to do with corruption; a similar prospect prompted several ministerial resignations in the past. Moreover, because the court's edict meant that the parliament elected in February was annulled, the previous one, elected in November with fewer Islamists and more members in favour of the emir's appointed government would have to be reinstated.