The newly appointed MP, Baker Al-Kasasbeh, took the constitutional oath as a member of the House of Representatives.
This took place during a legislative session held by the House of Representatives on Sunday morning, headed by Speaker Mazen Al-Qadi, and attended by Prime Minister Dr. Jafar Hassan alongside members of the cabinet.
اضافة اعلان
Al-Kasasbeh’s swearing-in comes in accordance with Article 80 of the Constitution, succeeding MP Hassan Al-Riyati, whose seat became vacant following a definitive judicial ruling against him. The Board of Commissioners of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) subsequently designated Al-Kasasbeh as the next eligible candidate from the same electoral list.
Al-Kasasbeh took the constitutional oath before the House of Representatives, stating: "I swear by Almighty God to be loyal to the King and the Homeland, to preserve the Constitution, to serve the Nation, and to faithfully perform the duties entrusted to me."
The General Secretariat of the House of Representatives recently received the final judicial ruling sentencing Al-Riyati to two years in prison and referred it to the Independent Election Commission to proceed with declaring the parliamentary seat vacant and identifying the replacement candidate in accordance with the Election Law.
Article 75 of the Jordanian Constitution states: "No person shall be a member of the Senate or the House of Representatives who has been sentenced to imprisonment for a term exceeding one year for a non-political crime and has not been pardoned."
Al-Riyati had contested the recent parliamentary elections for the local district in the Aqaba Governorate under the "Al-Ummah" Party list.
Regarding the legal mechanism for filling the vacant seat, the provisions of the House of Representatives Election Law No. 4 of 2022 define the process in the event of a vacancy due to death, resignation, dismissal, loss of membership, or any other reason.
According to this mechanism, the seat is filled by the candidate who directly follows the vacated MP on the same local list. The selection is based on the order of votes received by the non-winning candidates on that list, meaning the runner-up with the highest number of votes moves up.
However, if the MP was elected via the general (national) list, the seat is filled by the candidate who immediately follows them in the original sequence of the national list submitted to the IEC at the time of nomination.
Article 64 of the House of Representatives Election Law No. 4 of 2022 states: "If a seat of any member of the House of Representatives becomes vacant for any reason, the vacant seat shall be filled from the list from which the member won, by a decision of the Commission, so that the candidate who immediately follows them in the list order replaces the vacated member."
