First Al-Khalifa Ministry

Date Dissolved
 President
 Status
 Election(s)

The **First Al-Khalifa Ministry** was formed on September 27, 2038 and lasted until June 10, 2039, when Salman Al-Khalifa formed a new coalition administration following snap elections. The government was the first minority cabinet since the Docu Ministry in 2021-24, and the first minority government to be led by the Union for Persia.

Following the 2034-35 constitutional crisis, President Geena Kulmuni left office to become general secretary of the Shanghai Pact, whilst opposition leader Hassen Ahmed assumed the presidency after an election. After the surrender of the Bovido Imperium in 2038, internal disagreements over peace terms within the Shanghai Pact allowed Ahmed to oust Kulmuni as the organisation's leader in an act of retribution amid a well-publicised personal animosity between the two leaders. In response, Kulmuni returned to Persia to take up an active role in domestic politics and instructed her party to begin motioning for the impeachment of President Hassen Ahmed with the backing of governmental rebels; in order to prevent the holding of an embarrassing vote and potentially losing it, Ahmed dissolved congress and called for new elections. However, the new election returned a hung parliament and prime minister Tamim bin Hamad resigned, prompting President Ahmed to appoint defence secretary Salman Al-Khalifa as head of a new minority government after failing to form a coalition government.

Salman Al-Khalifa's tenure as prime minister was largely defined by domestic issues as his cabinet sought to balance a struggling economy, demand for constitutional change, and a power struggle within the governing Union for Persia. After inheriting a government budget dominated by deeply unpopular austerity measures, Al-Khalifa appointed Mohammad Al-Katari as the new finance secretary and activated a sunset clause in the *National Finance Act of 2036* in order to immediately end the government's commitment to austere fiscal policy. As the government grew increasingly unpopular, Al-Khalifa oversaw a constitutional amendment to prevent presidents serving more than two terms with the backing of the opposition Halqa party, which was criticised for specifically targeting opposition leader and former president Geena Kulmuni. A further constitutional amendment in late 2038 shrunk presidential terms to four years and moved forwards scheduled presidential elections to November 2039. Amid the ongoing political and economic crisis, President Hassen Ahmed had become one of the most unpopular presidents in Persian history as voters grew increasingly disillusioned with his style of governance and the failure of his governments to implement many of his 2035 campaign pledges. In October 2038, former prime minister Tamim bin Hamad began a campaign to oust Ahmed as UfP leader, and mere months later, Ahmed resigned as UfP general secretary and passed the role to Salman Al-Khalifa as his designated successor.

In April 2039, the government moved forwards the scheduled 2039 government budget in a bid to gain the confidence of the National People's Congress; however, the budget was defeated by a majority of congress, prompting the holding of a snap congressional election on May 11, 2039. The newly elected 8th Persian congress was a hung parliament, with no single party able to form a government. The poor performance of the UfP prompted Salman Al-Khalifa to pledge his resignation as party leader upon the election of a replacement, whilst Progressive party leader Geena Kulmuni resigned for similar reasons and was replaced by Amal Alamuddin. Due to the ongoing political crisis, Al-Khalifa and Alamuddin agreed to form an interim grand coalition government with a rotating premiership in order to stabilise the government in the runup to the scheduled presidential and legislative elections in November 2039 and to keep the newly elected radical smaller political parties from government. On June 10, 2039, the new government was inaugurated and the first Al-Khalifa government was dissolved.

## See Also

* President of Persia
* Prime Minister of Persia
* Coordination Council
* Persian Congress