AMMAN — The sub-committee of the
Royal Committee for Political Modernization designated to suggest changes to
the elections law has recommended an increase in the total number
اضافة اعلان
The election law defines the seats
allocated to parties within the national party list, according to Chairperson
of the Royal Committee for Political Modernization, Senator Samir Rifai. There
are around 30 recognized political parties in the Kingdom. In comments to local
media, Rifai said that the parties and elections committees will meet after
they finish their respective bills.
Below are the changes to be made:
Increase number of parliament seats
The sub-committee agreed to increase
the number of seats in the parliament to 150, according to comments posted by
sub-committee rapporteur and founder and General Director of Al-Hayat Center
for Civil Society Development Amer Bani Amer to state media. Fifty of these
seats will be allocated to the national list and limited to recognized
political parties only.
Party lists threshold
Parties will have to achieve at
least 3 percent of the vote. This is to prevent the repetition of the results
of the 2013 election, when most parties won only one seat.
The list will also represent
candidates from at least six of the Kingdom’s governorates. Amer explained that
“the goal is to translate the directives of His Majesty King Abdullah and the
aspirations of the Jordanian people for a partisan parliament and a
parliamentary government.”
Maintain proportions and quotas
Though the total number of
parliamentary seats will change, the proportion of representation of electoral
districts will stay the same. The total number of electoral districts will
remain the same, at 23.
Additionally, minimum representation
will be maintained through quotas for women, Christians, Circassians, Chechens
and Bedouins.
What is the royal committee?
The Royal Committee for Political
Modernization was formed in June upon a decree of His Majesty King Abdullah.
Senator Samir Rifai was designated as the chairperson of the committee, whose
goal is to modernize and improve Jordan’s political system, starting with the
laws regulating political parties and elections. Ninety-two members were
originally appointed to the committee, from a variety of political and cultural
backgrounds (two members, Oraib Rantawi and Wafa Al-Khadra, have resigned).
In addition to the amendments
approved by the elections sub-committee, the Women’s Empowerment sub-committee
called for canceling the requirement that candidates resigned from their jobs
to run for the parliamentary elections and replacing it with obtaining an
unpaid leave.
It is expected that the
sub-committees will finish their work by August 15th.
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