A few minutes after being re-appointed as prime minister of the caretaker cabinet, Kuwait's Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak declined the post, saying, "I send a message of apology to the Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah for rejecting my re-appointment as premier due to the recent fabrications launched by some lawmakers against me".
The Kuwait emir also decided to remove the defense and interior ministers from their posts in the wake of the government's resignation last week.
Sheikh Jaber submitted the government's resignation last week due to no-confidence votes and requested officials to grill members of the ruling Al Sabah family, prompting the Kuwait's emir to remove his son, Defense Minister Sheikh Nasser Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, and Interior Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah from their posts in the current caretaker cabinet.
The country’s parliamentary elections are expected in early 2020.
Later, AFP quoted lawmakers that the resignation happened amid accusation of public fund misuse and disputes among ministers.
On his part, Parliament Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim said he doesn’t believe the emir, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, intends to dissolve the legislature, according to the official KUNA news agency.
According to Bloomberg, government resignations followed by the dissolution of parliament and fresh elections aren’t unusual in OPEC-member Kuwait, and have mostly been triggered by clashes between lawmakers and cabinet ministers.
The move came just days after Jenan Ramadan, the minister of public works, announced that she would step down after being harshly criticized by parliament of the Gulf country.
Earlier, lawmakers had acutely accused Ramadan, who also serves as minister of state for housing, of failing to fix infrastructure and roads which were damaged during massive floods that swept the country last year.