Cabinet passes constituencies bylaw for 2023

AMMAN — The Cabinet on Sunday evening endorsed the constituencies bylaw for 2023, which is part of a series of laws governing the political modernisation system.

The Council of Ministers, during a session chaired by Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh, endorsed the bill after the issuance of the 2022 Elections Law of the Lower House, which necessitated issuing a bylaw to identify constituencies geographically in addition to their seats, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The bylaw also identifies seats allocated for Christians, Circassians and Chechens within constituencies across the Kingdom, and the number of seats in the northern, central and southern badia regions.

According to the 2022 Elections Law of the Lower House, the Kingdom is divided into 18 local and general constituencies with 138 seats: 97 seats for local constituencies and 41 for the general constituencies, where Amman has three local constituencies, Irbid two and other governorates have one constituency each. 

Also, three constituencies are allocated for the northern, central and southern badia regions with each having three seats.

The law stipulates that women shall be allocated one seat in each local electoral district with a total of 18 seats, in addition to two seats for Circassians and Chechens in Amman and Zarqa governorates, and seven seats for Christians with one seat in each for Amman, Irbid, Balqa, Karak, Zarqa, Madaba and Ajloun.

The law also stipulates that the political party lists running for the seats of the general electoral district shall include at least one woman among the top three candidates and the following three candidates, as well as a young person under the age of 35 years among the first five candidates.

The law also stipulates a minimum of two seats for Christians and one seat for Circassians and Chechens within the general constituency.

The constituencies bylaw aims to increase participation in elections by achieving equitable distribution of seats and maintaining the weight of a fair electoral voice among all.