Jordan Teachers Association wraps up elections with new president, vice president

AMMAN — Chairman of The Jordan Teachers Association’s (JTA) Higher Elections Committee and Secretary General of the Ministry of Education Sami Salaytah on Saturday announced that Ahmad Hajayah had been elected JTA president.

Salaytah also announced that Naser Nawasreh had won the JTA’s vice president position.

Hajayah received 88 out of 164 votes, whereas Nawasreh received 94 out of 164 votes, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The JTA’s Higher Elections Committee announced that voting had ended at 3:30pm.

“The number of teachers who voted stood at 164, representing 100 per cent of the association’s central committee,” Salaytah stated.

Voting centres opened at 10:30am on Saturday and included elections for the JTA president, vice president and 12 other members of the council, Petra reported.

The JTA’s central committee members were elected by more than 80,000 registered teachers across the Kingdom to represent a sector that comprises the bulk of Jordan’s public-sector employees.

The central committee elections that took place on March 19 were reported to have “flowed smoothly”, according officials, who cited relatively high turnout across most of Jordan.

The JTA decided to reduce the number of committee seats this year, previously citing a decline in full JTA membership.

The new distribution granted 10 seats to each of the 12 governorates, one seat for each of the education ministry’s 43 directorates and one seat for every directorate whose registered members exceeded 5,000.