Kuwaitis rally for constitutional monarchy, reform

Hundreds of Kuwaitis rallied on Friday demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected government, as the emirate battles with an unprecedented corruption scandal involving members of parliament. Holding banners calling for fundamental reforms, including appointing a prime minister from outside the Al-Sabah ruling family, the protesters also chanted slogans urging the dismissal of the prime minister and dissolving parliament. "The people want to topple the prime minister" — Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al Ahmad Al Sabah, a nephew of the emir — chanted the mostly young protesters in the demonstration dubbed as "the people's day." Protesters called for dissolving parliament after the public prosecution last week launched a probe into bank accounts of at least nine MPs in the 50-member house for alleged illegal deposits. Local media and opposition MPs claimed the funds, estimated at around $350 million (252 million euros), were given to MPs in exchange for voting on key issues in parliament, including grillings of ministers. Kuwait has been little affected by the so-called Arab Spring that has already toppled three leaders, but opposition Islamist MP Waleed Al Tabtabai warned that this could come. "The breeze of the Arab Spring is blowing on Kuwait but not to topple the regime, only to reform it," Tabtabai told a gathering Tuesday night. On Thursday, the state minister for cabinet affairs and government spokesman Ali Al Rashed, in an interview with Al Rai television, accused those who call for a Kuwaiti Spring as "traitors who aim at toppling the regime." Youth activists have also called for deep reforms to legalise political parties and have a popular government that would effectively reduce the authority of the Al Sabah family, in power for more than 250 years. "These proposals aim to transfer Kuwait from the family state into the state of the people ... This is a popular demand and the authority must look seriously into it," one of the organisers told the crowd. Under the proposed reform, the AlSabah family would still have the emir and crown prince as stipulated by the 1962 constitution, but the post of the prime minister would go to the people.