Jordan has 4 alternatives for elections amid pandemic — Rasid

AMMAN — With the Kingdom approaching its parliamentary elections this year, the Civil Coalition for Monitoring Elections and the Performance of Elected Councils (Rasid) has announced that the government has four constitutional alternatives for holding parliamentary elections amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a policy paper the coalition issued on Monday, Rasid presented four possibilities regarding the way the 18th Lower House and the 19th parliamentary elections will be held in 2020, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

According to Rasid, the first option is to hold the elections on their constitutional date, September 27, without dissolving the Lower House and dismissing the government, based on Article 68-2 of the Jordanian Constitution.

The second option is to hold the elections on their constitutional date but dissolve the Lower House before mid-June and dismiss the government based on the Constitution’s articles. The Kingdom has taken this course of action often in the past, as the Lower House has been dissolved 15 times out of 17 since it was formed in 1947.

Priority will be based on developments in the Kingdom's epidemiological and health situation, as well as the ability of public institutions, particularly the Independent Elections Commission (IEC), to handle the elections during the pandemic, Rasid said. 

The third option is to postpone the parliamentary elections, which can be done in two ways: The first involves dissolving the Lower House, dismissing the government and holding elections after the end of the Lower House's 18th constitutional period, while the second involves holding the elections without dissolving the House or dismissing the government, meaning that the 18th House hands over authority over to the 19th House.

The fourth option is to hold the elections one or two years after the end of the 18th Lower House's constitutional period after extending the current Lower House in accordance with Article 68-1.