Royal committee proposes groundbreaking elections, political parties laws

saraha news

A committee entrusted by His Majesty King Abdullah in June to develop the country’s political and parliamentary ecosystem has proposed two drafts for new elections and political parties laws, in addition to other recommendations related to local governance and women and youth empowerment.

With regard to the new election law, the committee proposed a mixed electoral system with two levels of representation, the first being national and called “the general constituency,” and the second local and called “local constituencies.”

Accordingly, the proposed bill divides the Kingdom into 18 local electoral districts and one general district. The Lower House of Parliament is proposed to have 138 members.

Competition in the general district or national lists is proposed to be limited to political parties, earmarking 41 seats for them. The bill also proposes the adoption of a closed-list proportional system with a threshold of 2.5% of all voters at the general constituency level.

In the general constituency, at least two seats are allocated to Christians and at least one seat to Jordanians of Circassian and Chechen descent. To promote the participation of youth and women in political life, the law lowered the age of candidacy to 25 years, and stipulated that the electoral list must commit to having a young man (or young woman) at least 35 years old among the top five candidates.

The law also proposes obligating lists at the general district level to have at least one female candidate among the top three candidates, and at least one female candidate among the following three candidates.

To ensure equitable representation, the law stipulated that the list in the general constituency should include candidates distributed over half of the local electoral districts across the Kingdom. The committee said that the “general constituency” proposal will enhance national identity and develop collective social and political contexts around which Jordanians from different regions gather. It added that this formula will also provide a great opportunity for political parties to develop on a programmatic basis and move political life to a new stage.