‘No one-person, one-vote formula in new elections bill’

AMMAN — The one-person, one-vote electoral formula is totally absent in the new elections law the government has prepared, according to a senior official.

Minister of Political and Parliamentary Affairs Khaled Kalaldeh on Saturday said the government has "completely" removed the controversial one-person, one-vote electoral system from the new draft elections law it has prepared.

The system has been used in the Kingdom's parliamentary elections in one form or another since 1993.

Under the current Elections Law, on the basis of which the 2013 parliamentary elections were held, each voter is given two votes: one for a candidate at the district level and another for a closed proportional list that competes for 27 seats at the national level.

Speaking at a meeting organised by the Nissan Centre for Political and Parliamentary Development, Kalaldeh said the keystone reform-oriented law has not been referred to the Cabinet.

He attributed the more-than-one-year delay in sending the draft elections law to Parliament to the exceptional circumstances the country has witnessed, expecting the envisioned parliamentary government to emerge from the next Lower House.

The minister added that the new political parties law the government has referred to the House is facing criticism from political parties themselves, explaining that political parties, as well as the government, are to blame for the weak partisan life in the country, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

Kalaldeh stressed that the government has no negative attitude towards any licensed political party. 

He described the Muslim Brotherhood group as a major component of the Jordanian political fabric, Petra reported.

The minister also stressed that Jordan has no “geographic or demographic” ambitions in Iraq, adding that the Kingdom is always keen on gaining the approval of the Iraqi government on any move it takes.