By B Izzak

KUWAIT: HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah held talks on Wednesday with four former prime ministers as part of customary consultations to name a premier to form a new Cabinet. He received former premiers HH Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah, HH Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah and caretaker Prime Minister HH Sheikh Ahmad Al-Nawaf Al-Sabah. He also spoke over the phone with former prime minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, who is outside the country.

HH the Crown Prince met on Tuesday with National Assembly Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun and former speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem over the same topic. HH the Crown Prince can rename the outgoing Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad or ask a new figure to form the new Cabinet.

The government resigned last month after just three months in office in protest against the insistence of MPs to debate costly populist draft legislation, especially a draft law calling for the purchase of billions of dinars of bank loans owed by Kuwaiti citizens. The government demanded that the draft laws be sent back to Assembly committees for rediscussing them to hear the government's views, but MPs voted to debate them immediately.

On Tuesday, Saadoun adjourned regular Assembly sessions for Tuesday and Wednesday over a lack of quorum and the government's failure to attend, amid protests by several MPs over obstructing the work of the Assembly.