Chaos under the Dome as Lower House session adjourned until Wednesday

AMMAN — A Lower House session on constitutional reforms on Tuesday snowballed into chaos and scuffles, forcing Speaker Abdulkarim Dughmi to adjourn the session until Wednesday.

The Lower House had agreed to hold deliberations over the 2021 draft amendments of the Constitution when the House convenes.

Initially, the Tuesday session was briefly adjourned after verbal altercations erupted between lawmakers. However, after the House resumed, heated arguments continued and turned into scuffles, prompting the adjournment of the session until Wednesday, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Videos of the clashes in the Lower House went viral on social media platforms under the hashtag #HouseOfRepresentatives with many social media users expressing their discontent and describing some representatives’ behaviour as “insulting and disrespectful”.

“Such behaviour is not suitable nor acceptable for a country like Jordan, a 100 years old reputable country,” Twitter user Sarah tweeted in Arabic.

“This House of Representatives does not represent Jordanian people; we refuse to be represented this way,” Samir Khairy, a Jordanian citizen, wrote on Facebook.

Meanwhile, a parliamentary meeting on Tuesday concluded that a complaint made by MPs Shaddi Freig and Andreh Hawarri against MPs Suleiman Abu Yahya and Hassan Riyatti will be referred to the Lower House Legal Committee. 

During the meeting attended by 50 MPs, a number of deputies stressed the need to referring the file of MP Abu Yahya to the legal committee, while others called for bringing closure to the issue, according to Petra.