Leading lawmakers say Election Law change a must

AMMAN — The key to achieving the envisioned political reform is a new election law that encourages candidates and political parties with platforms to join the election race, Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh said on Sunday. 

During a session organised by the Economic and Social Council on the role of the Parliament, Tarawneh added that parliamentary blocs, once formed on the foundation of genuine programmes, can accordingly decide their relations with governments and positions on its plans and policies, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Jordan’s system of government is parliamentary with a hereditary monarchy, he said, and to apply this “key constitutional principle”, the Parliament has to be empowered to exercise its legislative and oversight roles through drastic changes to the political action laws, mainly the Election Law, he stressed. 

The speaker said that the nature of the election law hinders a full exercise of the oversight powers of MPs in the sense that it still favours individual over collective action, which, he said, has led to the failure of amendments made to the House’s statute to enhance the role of parliamentary blocs.

Tarawneh added that while some governments had enough time to express their abilities to implement higher directives, yet they left Letters of Designation behind and embarked on dealing with daily issues instead of adopting strategic and comprehensive action plans. 

He also noted that Letters of Designation and Speeches from the Throne assign certain tasks to governments, where constitutionally, the Lower House is required to monitor the governments’ commitment to make good on pledges that they make regarding the implementation of these tasks.

First Deputy Lower House Speaker Khamis Atiyyeh echoed Tarawneh’s remarks on the importance of amending the Election Law in a way that empowers political parties to regain their role in political life.