AMMAN — A Royal Decree was issued on Sunday postponing the ordinary session of Parliament, scheduled to start in October, until November 29, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

As per the Constitution, Parliament was originally scheduled to convene in October, but His Majesty King Abdullah has the constitutional right to postpone the session, dissolve Parliament and call for early elections.

After the dissolution, the Independent Elections Commission (IEC) can specify a date for the upcoming elections, Prime Minister Fayez Tarawneh said in a television interview last Friday.

The upcoming parliamentary elections are expected to be held early next year after the IEC extended the period to register for the polls for 15 more days.

The longest grace period allowed for the IEC as per the commission’s code is 85 days.

This period is necessary, the premier said, to allow government officials who plan to run for elections to resign their posts.

Tarawneh said that the current government will have to resign under the latest constitutional amendments, adopted in September last year.

“The specific day on which the government needs to submit its resignation is His Majesty’s call,” said the premier, noting that the constitutional amendments stipulate that the prime minister during whose term the Parliament is dissolved cannot form a new government.