AMMAN — Tour guides held a sit-in Friday at the Petra
Visitors Center in the old city to protest the cancelation of the Tour Guides
Association's elections on Thursday.
اضافة اعلان
The decision to cancel the elections was taken by Ministry
of Tourism and Antiquities' personnel who oversaw the process and as a result
of crowding at the election center and associated health risks.
The guides blamed the ensuing chaos on the organizers of the
elections, arguing that the hall chosen as a venue for the elections at a hotel
in Amman was too small. The hall’s capacity did not exceed 200 people, while
500 were present out of the 1,400 members of the association, according to Hani
Massaadeh, one of the 22 candidates running for a seat on the association
council.
Massaadeh blamed the ministry for this failure in completing
the elections, insisting that everyone in the hall was wearing a mask, in the
presence of tourism police and public safety monitors, and that no one was
ticketed for any violations.
"They should have prevented crowding and organized the
ballot casting with better procedures," Massaadeh told Jordan News. “The
ministry's involvement was only a source of chaos,” he added.
The association secretary and a candidate for the new
council, Osama Al-Atoum, also expressed disappointment at the outcome. "We
just felt resentment when they called off the polls. We had been eagerly
waiting for these elections and then they decided to cancel the whole process
citing health risks, at a time when festivals and other events are being held
without interruption despite lack of commitment to health protocols."
Protestors said that the timing of the elections in the
aftermath of a financial crises brought about by COVID-19 was very important to
streamline the sector and kick off a recovery process. Osama Saad, a protestor,
told Jordan News that the process should have been overseen by the secretary of
the current council instead of the ad hoc committee appointed by the ministry.
In a statement issued late Saturday, the ministry insisted
that the health protocol was breached, adding that the commotion started when
some members of the general assembly protested loudly against the financial and
administrative report presented to the assembly by the outgoing council.
The ministry also accused some participants of verbally
attacking the head of the committee organizing the event and members of the
association's council. A new date will be set for the elections by the
association, the statement concluded, advising full commitment to the health protocols
and other regulations.
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