HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah yesterday opened traditional consultations ahead of naming a prime minister to form a new Cabinet, highly expected to be outgoing premier Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah. The move came amid warnings by opposition figures against a reported plan to change the election system, saying such changes could drag the country into a real crisis that may become difficult to resolve. Sheikh Sabah held talks with former National Assembly speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun and current speaker of the revived 2009 Assembly Jassem Al-Khorafi and held talks over the phone with former prime minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah.

The Amir is expected to name the new prime minister within the coming few days and possibly today but the formation of the Cabinet is expected to take between one to two weeks and is not likely to be ready before the middle of the month. The government resigned last week days after a historical ruling by the constitutional court in which it nullified the February elections, scrapped the 2012 Assembly and reinstated the 2009 Assembly which was dissolved in December last year.

The government said it had resigned only for constitutional reasons in a bid to avoid any constitutional suspicions that may result in a similar court ruling in the future. The new Cabinet must be sworn in by the Amir to assume its powers but there is a controversy over whether it should take the oath before the revived 2009 Assembly. Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi said that he will invite MPs from the 2009 Assembly to hold sessions in order to allow the new Cabinet members to take the oath, saying that taking the oath is a constitutional requirement.

Khorafi however acknowledged that it may be difficult to gather the necessary quorum to hold the Assembly meeting and that if the first meeting fails, he will call for a second one, after which he will refer the issue to the Amir. Opposition figures however insist that there is no constitutional need to convene the 2009 Assembly and called on the new Cabinet to recommend to the Amir to dissolve it as soon as possible and call for fresh elections. The opposition has repeatedly warned against retaining the 2009 Assembly for a long time since almost one-third of its members are accused of corruption.

Former opposition MPs yesterday renewed warnings to the government against altering the election system amid reports that there are plans to reduce the number of candidates a voter can elect from the current four to just two. Salafi Islamist MP Khaled Al-Sultan charged that the plan is a government-liberal plot directed at the Islamist groupings in a bid to reduce their strength in the next Assembly. Sultan cautioned that changing the election system may lead to youth protests that may be difficult to control, thus aggravating the situation in the country.

Former MP Mubarak Al-Waalan also issued a stern warning against any changes to the voting system, saying that reduction is targeting the tribal-dominated fourth and fifth constituencies. Islamist MP Jamaan Al-Harbash said on Sunday that if the election system is changed, the opposition will call for boycotting the next polls.