Mechanism for Selecting the Speaker of the Kuwaiti National Assembly between Parliamentary Control and the Constitutional Court
Mohammad Adel Al-Khudary
Judge, Regional Court, State of Kuwait
Abstract:
This research paper deals with the position of Speaker of the National Assembly, because of its importance, whether from a legal or political standpoint, or from the local or external point. Therefore, the researcher addressed the issue of the mechanism for selecting the Speaker of the National Assembly in order to explain how the speaker is selected. In the event that this mechanism is marred by any violations, there must be an entity that monitors that mechanism to avoid any violations that may befall it. Of course, members of the National Assembly have the authority to investigate it, by forming an investigation committee, which in turn probes the matter. The said committee’s powers are stipulated in the Constitution and the internal bylaws of the National Assembly.
However, in his research, the researcher concluded that the control performed by members of the National Assembly is not decisively effective in resolving and ending the existing dispute regarding this process. The utmost that this committee can do is to prepare a report and submit it to the National Assembly, which has the right to accept or reject the report and act against it. Therefore, it is necessary to search for another party that will have a positive role in resolving the conflict.
Accordingly, the researcher recommended a legislative amendment to the law establishing the Constitutional Court, by granting the Constitutional Court the right to consider the problems that arise in the mechanism for selecting the Speaker of the National Assembly because it is a court that has the authority to decide on the dispute with decisive rulings, as it is a neutral body characterized by its composition of elite members of the judiciary, and it can be easily resorted to by those who have an interest in challenging the mechanism for selecting the speaker. However, the current texts stand in the way of the possibility of the Constitutional Court hearing appeals related to this mechanism. This requires the intervention of the legislator to grant the Constitutional Court jurisdiction to hear such appeals.
Keywords: election of the Speaker of the National Assembly, internal bylaws, the Kuwaiti Constitution, and the Constitutional Court.