Political parties decry draft by-law on party funding

AMMAN — A group of 22 political parties on Wednesday issued a joint statement voicing their rejection of a recent government draft by-law on financial support for political parties. 

Unified Jordanian Front Party Secretary General Farouq Abbadi told The Jordan Times on Thursday that the government should have issued a new election law before issuing the draft by-law, adding that the former should serve as a base for the latter. 

"The election law governs parliamentary, governorate councils and municipalities, and thus the government should have worked on the draft by-law after issuing the main reference had it truly intended to achieve any kind of political reform, especially since around 80 to 90 per cent of financial support is based on the parties' participation in the election," Abbadi said.

Election takes place every four years, and if the majority of financial support is based on the election, the parties will struggle to operate for the remaining three years, Abbadi said.

A political party is expected to operate in all parts of the Kingdom, and thus needs headquarters in different governorates in order to have a place to meet with people and conduct its political mandate, Abbadi said, adding that the operational costs for headquarters are far exceeding the support offered in the by-law. 

Abbadi stressed that political parties require channels to promote their ideas and programmes to people, which the draft by-law barely takes into account.

For his part, Al Resalah Party Secretary General Hazem Qashou said that his party appreciate the country’s support and contribution to political parties, but the current situation is tougher than before as parties’ work requirements have changed.

He said that political parties need media outlets of their own to broadcast their ideas, gather support to their candidates in all sorts of election and meet their political commitments. 

A party is required by-law to have seven headquarters around the Kingdom, but this can be expensive as each headquarters requires an office clerk, a secretary and utilities, he said. 

What the government is offering is not enough to cover these costs, Qashou said, suggesting that private sector companies could contribute 1 per cent of their revenue to a party of their choice.

He said that all these ideas and others have been submitted to lawmakers but none of it was taken into consideration when the draft by-law was issued. 

On a related note, a study recently published by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation said that political parties in Jordan need financial support that should be based on clear criteria and measurements of success.

The aim of the study was to help politicians and decision makers find a unified system or model for financially supporting political parties.

Regarding operational costs, the study suggested that the government provide JD15,000 annually to support the operational costs of a political party after ensuring it meets certain conditions. 

The money would fund operations at political headquarters and branches, utility costs, office furnishing, salaries for the people who work for the party, paper and digital publications and annual conference costs, according to the foundation.

The study also suggested allocating a pre-decided sum for each vote a candidate of a party receives during election, under the condition that the candidate receives at least 2 per cent of the total votes in their respective area.