Kuwait City - The opposition swept Kuwait's parliamentary polls, official results showed yesterday, boding well for the vote for women but raising the prospects of a new showdown between MPs and the emir's government.
The result was "a crushing defeat for the government," said the English-language Arab Times, while the leading daily Al-Qabas said the electorate made the cabinet "pay" for the last parliament's dissolution.
Opposition candidates won a two-thirds majority in Saturday's elections, giving the liberals and Islamists the power to block legislation. The result was likely to send shockwaves through the government, which can however add the 16 votes of its ministers to force legislation through the National Assembly.
The Islamists won 20 seats and the liberals 16, while the 14 other seats in the 50-member assembly went mostly to pro-government candidates.
In keeping with the constitution, the cabinet of the Prime Minister, Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah, the crown prince, handed its resignation to the emir, the official news agency KUNA said.