Kuwait’s oil minister faces no-confidence vote

Kuwait’s minister of oil, electricity and water is facing a no-confidence vote from MPs less than six months into the job.

Bakheet Al-Rashidi, who was president and CEO of Kuwait Petroleum International, joined the cabinet in December under a royal decree.

State news agency KUNA reported that 10 MPs had submitted a request for a no-confidence vote on Tuesday following an 11-hour grilling session said to involve over allegations of corruption and squandering of public funds.

Kuwait Times.

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Al-Rashidi denied the allegations and said there was no material evidence to prove the losses.

The 10 lawmakers identified by parliament speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim as submitting the no-confidence request were Al-Humaidi al-Subai’i, Dr Abdul Karim al-Kandari, Faisal al-Kandari, Salah Khurshid, Hamdan al-Azmi, Dr Adel al-Dimkhi, Omar al-Tabtabai, Abdulwahab al-Babtain, Safaa al-Hashem and Dr Khalil Abel.

He said the vote could be held no sooner than seven days after submission under Kuwaiti law and therefore will take place during the session on Wednesday, May 9.

The ministry also debated the grilling of Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah and was scheduled to debate a grilling against minister of social affairs and labour Hind Al-Sabaeeh.

Al-Rashidi’s appointment came after the previous cabinet resigned following repeated grillings of ministers by MPs.

At the time the government was less than a year old after being appointed following November 2016’s parliamentary elections that saw major gains from opposition MPs.

Read: Kuwait’s government resigns