AMMAN — The mayor of Amman is appointed, formally
by His Majesty the King. But in the midst of a flurry of initiatives meant to
achieve political reform, activists are leading an appeal to transition to
democratically elect the person for this position.
اضافة اعلان
The
National Center for Human Rights (NCHR)
presented observations on the "
Greater Amman Municipality Draft Law for
the year 2020" and an additional draft law for the decentralization of municipalities
during the participation of a team of the center's board of trustees in the
meeting of a joint parliamentary committee discussing the said pieces of
legislation.
As over half of the Jordanian population is
concentrated in the capital, the NCHR "called for subjecting the Greater
Amman Municipality to the law regulating local administration in Jordan, and
demanded — based on the principle of constitutional equality embodied in
Article (6) of the Jordanian Constitution — to grant citizens residing in the capital
the right to choose Amman’s mayor on an equal basis with other citizens."
The basis of this appeal is to move towards a
neutral position between centralized and decentralized municipalities. Citizens
have the autonomy to elect the Lower House of Parliament as well as 97 of the
100 mayors in the Kingdom. The mayors of the remaining three strongholds,
Petra, Aqaba, and the capital, Amman, are appointed by the Cabinet based on the
recommendations of the prime minister.
"The conversation over municipal elections
in Amman came about during the discussion. It was not present in the proposal
we presented. We were proposing the paper on the laws of municipalities in
general, not the laws of Greater Amman,” said Commissioner-General of the NCHR
Alaa Al-Din Al-Armouti, in remarks to
Jordan News.
When the discussion veered towards Amman, Armouti
reiterated that his position that was Amman should hold democratic elections.
"We believe there needs to be an election
for Amman because there needs to be equality among all the municipalities in
the country,” he said. “All the municipalities hold elections and their mayors
are elected, but for Amman, the mayor is appointed. We don't see a reason why
the citizens of Amman shouldn't be able to elect their mayor."
Mamdouh Al-Abbadi, a former mayor and several-time
minister, told
Jordan News that he "hoped that there would be an
election of the mayor of Amman and all the members of the Council…In our
belief, the appointment phase has ended. Our experience has matured and we have
gone through many stages; it must lead us to this natural result of 'elections'
like many other countries in the world."
"His Majesty the King, in the fifth Discussion
Paper, said that we have to put our efforts to complete all elements of a
democratic transition. This is a very important thing,” he went on.
The NCHR made additional amendments to the
draft law, stipulating that it can determine the number of the [governorate] council
members for each governorate and not leave that to be determined by a bylaw
issued by the Cabinet. This amendment means that the provincial council is
given greater, clearly-defined powers that it can exercise voluntarily, without
being subject to the will and directives of the central authority, especially
concerning local affairs.
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