Kuwait’s National Assembly Speaker Marzouq al-Ghanim announced Thursday that the government would not attend the special session on Sunday, May 12 to discuss a general amnesty draft law. He said he has received a request signed by a number of MPs calling to convene this session, which aims at dropping the sentences against opposition figures who had been convicted earlier. “The government informed me it would not attend the session due to lack of coordination,” Ghanim told reporters. It usually attends parliamentary special sessions when coordination is made with it on subjects of discussion or session scheduling, he noted. In this case, the session will not be held, he said, adding he has called to hold the special session in accordance with bylaw processes. Government attendance is essential to hold the session in addition to the required quorum. He said he won’t attend the session, adding that his deputy Eisa al-Kanderi will replace him in running the session in case it is held. MP Mohammed Barak al-Mutair has formally submitted a request to the National Assembly to convene the special session and discuss the amnesty law. “Today, 22 deputies and I have asked for convening a special session to discuss the amnesty law, as approved by the constitution,” he said on his official Twitter account on Tuesday. “I hope the government will cooperate on this law,” he tweeted, adding that if the government doesn’t attend the meeting, the relationship between the two authorities will worsen. “If the government decides not to attend the session and face the inquiry by Abdulkarim al-Kanderi to the premier and agree to transfer it to the legislative committee, this means it doesn’t want to taake its responsibility,” said MP Adel al-Damkhi. MP Mohammed al-Dallaal, for his part, said the government’s failure to attend the session on amnesty law contradicts with the principle of cooperation between the Assembly and the government, stipulated by the constitution in article 50. “It is also a negative position against a constitutional requirement to activate article 75 of the Constitution, which gives the National Assembly the power to issue a general amnesty law,” he stressed. Notably, the general amnesty law, which some MPs have been calling for its enactment, has no consensus within the Assembly, especially with regard to persons who can benefit from it. MPs insist that any general amnesty law should include all those convicted of political charges or prisoners of conscience.