State news: The Kuwaiti court annulled the 2022 parliamentary elections

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A Kuwaiti court on Sunday annulled the results of last year’s parliamentary election, saying it would restore the previous list of representatives elected in 2020.

The decision of the Kuwaiti Constitutional Court, which was reported by the state news agency KUNA, threw even more chaos into the politics of the small, oil-rich nation on the coast of the Persian Gulf.

In its decision, the court referred to “differences” in the decree dissolving the 2020 parliament.

Authorities did not immediately explain what this meant for the Kuwaiti parliament. Kuwait has the freest and most active assembly of any Gulf Arab state, but political power remains largely concentrated in the hands of the ruling Al Sabah family, which appoints the prime minister and cabinet and can dissolve the assembly at any time.

In September, voters sent conservative Islamist figures and two women into parliament in the second election in less than two years. The election results were seen as a mandate for change amid a prolonged stalemate between the cabinet and the 50-member assembly.

Kuwait’s Islamist opposition accuses the government of malfeasance and mismanagement, and often insults ministers for their involvement in the misallocation of public funds.

The bickering prevented the Assembly from passing essential economic reforms, including a national debt bill that would have allowed the government to borrow, leading to a depletion of the general reserve fund despite huge oil wealth.

Bordering Saudi Arabia and Iraq, Kuwait has the world’s sixth-largest known oil reserves and is home to about 13,500 US troops.