Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah has accepted the resignation of his government, but has re-appointed the prime minister to serve as caretaker of state affairs until a new cabinet is formed.

Prime minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammed al-Sabah tendered his resignation, along with the cabinet on 27 November during an emergency meeting with the Emir, according to state-run Kuwait News Agency (Kuna).

The prime minister has constantly faced the threat of parliamentary interrogation since his appointment in 2006 by his uncle the emir. His government has now resigned nine times in five years to avoid parliamentary questioning and has survived three no-confidence votes. On each occasion, he has been reappointed by the emir.

Opposition MPs have welcomed the cabinet’s resignation, but called for the appointment of a new prime minister and transitional government to oversee elections after the dissolution of the Assembly.

The parliamentary session planned for 28 November has been adjourned. Parliament was set to discuss a proposed questioning of the prime minister, which is described as a “grilling” in Kuwait, proposed in mid-November.

Further sessions could now be suspended for as long as a month until a new government is formed. Sheikh Nasser could now also move to dissolve parliament to prepare for early election.

This resignation follows weeks of sporadic demonstrations by opposition MPs and protesters against Sheikh Nasser and his government over allegations of corruption. Protesters even briefly stormed the National Assembly building on 16 November (MEED 23:11:11).

The prime minister’s resignation letter blames the collapse in Kuwaiti politics on “some of the negative practices that some [MPs] insisted on maintaining at the expense of public interests and the aspired cooperation between the legislative and executive authorities led to obstructing the national action process, thus the aspirations could not be attained”.