Election subcommittee approves amendments to draft election law

AMMAN — The election subcommittee of the Royal Committee to Modernise the Political System on Sunday approved a number of articles of the draft election law, according to the rapporteur of the committee Amer Bani Amer. 

The committee, during a meeting chaired by Khaled Bakkar, approved to increase the number of seats of the Lower House to 150, out of which 50 will be allocated for the national list, which is limited to political parties, Bani Amer said.

He also added that the committee has specified a 3 per cent threshold for the national list, which consists of political parties only, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The list will include representatives from at least six governorates to enhance partisan work, Bani Amer said, noting that the move aims to achieve a multi-partisan Lower House and a parliamentary government.

The rapporteur also revealed that the committee has agreed on maintaining the representation rate of the electoral constituencies, but not the number of seats.  He noted that the number of seats allocated to electoral constituencies could go down, but the representation rate during the upcoming parliamentary elections will remain the same.

The number of the Kingdom’s electoral constituencies will remain 23, he added, pointing out that the minimum representation of all quotas in place, including women, Christians, Circassians, Chechens and Bedouins will be maintained.