Local

AMMAN — Dar Al Wifaq Al Osari branches have become important in light of the increasing violence against women and children, and the need to safeguard their social and economic rights, Social Development Minister Reem Abu Hassan said on Tuesday.

Attending a ceremony to inaugurate a branch of Dar Al Wifaq Al Osari in Irbid, some 80km north of Amman, Abu Hassan noted that the increasing demand on the facility called for establishing a new centre in the city and extending these services to other governorates and regions later.

A ministry statement quoted her as saying that national achievements in protecting women from violence were enhanced since issuing the first law to found care centres for women and family in 2005, which was followed by operating Dar Al Wifaq Al Osari in 2007 in Amman, until a national strategy to combat gender-based violence was launched in 2014.

Norway’s Ambassador to Jordan Sissel Breie said her country is aware of the burden Jordan is bearing as a result of hosting Syrian refugees and the pressure this places on social and humanitarian services, especially in combating gender-based violence.

She also expressed Norway's support for Jordan in this field by assisting the centre to offer the best services to victims of domestic abuse.

UNICEF Representative to Jordan Robert Jenkins noted that UN studies show a raise in gender-based violence cases, which requires cooperation and coordination of all stakeholders to counter it.

Dar Al Wifaq Director Hilana Hammad said the facility will receive 25 women and 12 children in the first phase. 

In the second phase, the centre can accommodate 50 women and 25 children regardless of their nationalities.

AMMAN — The Lower House on Monday approved 46 out of the 68 articles of the draft elections law, including a provision stipulating the open proportional list at the governorate/constituency level. 

The new system replaces the notorious one-person-one-vote formula applied since 1993.

The House endorsed dividing the Kingdom into 23 electoral districts, one for each of the 12 governorates, except for Amman which was split into five districts, Irbid into four and Zarqa into two, while each of the three badia districts (northern, central and southern) was considered a governorate for the purposes of the bill at hand, a key component of the country’s political reform process.

The draft law allocates 115 seats for the constituencies and 15 seats for a women’s quota: one seat for each governorate and one seat for each badia district, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The draft law stipulates that running for elections for women’s seats has to be within lists without affecting the maximum limit of candidates in the list. 

The draft law also stipulates that the ticket includes no less than three candidates and does not exceed the number of seats allocated for the constituency in which the ticket is competing, Petra added.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said that setting the minimum number of candidates on each ticket to three is a positive point and a step forward to enhance collective actions through bloc building ahead of the polls, whose date has not been set yet. 

Minister of Political and Parliamentary Affairs Khaled Kalaldeh said that allocating the number of seats in each district depends on changeable criteria such as population, geography and the level of development, stressing the importance of identifying the seat numbers according to a by-law issued for this purpose.

The bill also stipulates that each eligible voter can only pick one list, and has then to name the candidate(s) he/she has chosen from the ticket.

The draft law stipulates that candidates for Circassian, Chechen and Christian seats can only run through lists in the districts where these groups have been designated seats in the House, Petra added.

The proportional electoral system allows winning lists to have seats according to what they achieved of the total percentage of votes cast, and these won seats will be distributed among the ticket members depending on the number of votes each candidate has garnered.

People in public office, including ministers, ministry employees, and mayors, are not allowed to run for the elections unless they resign their posts at least 60 days before the date of voting. 

This applies also to the prime minister. Lawmakers on Monday voted down a suggestion to ban the premier from running for parliamentary elections. 

Moreover, in regard to by-elections, all officials other than ministers must resign at least 15 days before the deadline to submit applications to run for the polls. 

According to the draft law, anyone who intends to run for the elections must be registered in the final voter lists and unlike the draft submitted by the government, which said they must pay JD1,000 each, those running for seats must pay only a non-refundable JD500 to the Treasury. 

As for tickets, each should pay JD2,000 to ensure commitment to rules of election campaigning, according to the bill, and the money is refunded in case the applicant’s candidacy is rejected or when the campaign advertisements are not in conformity with the rules.

The date of submitting the applications to run for the elections is determined by the board of commissioners at the Independent Elections Commission (IEC), Petra reported, adding that the date should precede the voting day by at least 25 days.

The bill allows every voter to contest the decision of the IEC board of commissioners to accept any ticket or any individual candidate within a ticket at the Court of Appeal.

The draft considers a ticket as eligible even if the candidates’ number drops below the minimum requirement in case of withdrawal, death or disqualification of members for breaching the law.

AMMAN — MP Hind Fayez resigned from the Lower House on Monday after an altercation between her and House Speaker Atef Tarawneh during the morning session. 

Fayez went into an argument with Tarawneh after he closed the discussion over the number of seats and electoral districts in each governorate during the debate over the draft elections law.

She said she does not accept being a “false witness”  when it comes to debating a very crucial law and demanded that the speaker must respect MPs, threatening to resign. She already submitted the application to Tarawneh during the session after he insisted on not discussing or even listening to what she had to say. 

Tarawneh said that he received the resignation and that he would schedule it on the agenda of the next session, noting that the House has the authority to accept or reject the application in accordance with the Constitution and by-laws.

AMMAN — The latest population census has revealed that the Kingdom's population has almost doubled over the past decade, according to official data released on Monday.

Non-Jordanians now represent around one third of Jordan's population with an estimated number of 2.9 million and 1.26 million being Syrians, the figures show.  

The report, released by the Department of Statistics (DoS), showed that the Kingdom's population in 2004 was 5.1 million, while by 2015, it increased by 4.4 million, making the total population 9.5 million. The figures also revealed that Jordan hosts 636,270 Egyptians, 634,182 Palestinians, 130,911 Iraqis, 31,163 Yemenis, 22,700 Libyans and 197,385 from other nationalities. 

Nearly half of non-Jordanians in the Kingdom live in Amman, which is home to 38.6 per cent of Jordanians. 

The 2015 Population Census, conducted in December, also showed that Jordan is still the country with the lowest illiteracy rate (9.1 per cent) in the Arab world. The majority of Jordanian children (95 per cent) between the ages of 6 and 15 are enrolled in schools and seven out of ten Syrians within the same age categories attend schools. 

According to the 2015 population census, three out of ten Jordanian males and four out of ten Jordanian females between the ages of 19 and 23 are enrolled in universities. Meanwhile, 13.3 per cent of Syrians are enrolled in universities. 

In terms of health, the census revealed that 55 per cent of the Kingdom's population is covered by various types of health insurance. Approximately 312,000 children benefit from a Royal Decree that provides all children under the age of six with free healthcare.  

The Ministry of Health’s medical insurance (mostly for government employees) covers 41.7 per cent of Jordanians, followed by the army-run Royal Medical Services (38 per cent), while the rest of the insured obtain the service as workers in other institutions or their dependants. The insurance is provided through private insurance firms, university hospitals, UNRWA, international insurance and other sources. Health insurance coverage rates among Jordanian females reached 65 per cent, versus 63 per cent among males. 

The population and housing census was conducted late last year, 11 years after the previous count was carried out in 2004. Overall, the report has shown a drastic increase in the Kingdom’s population, which is due to the large number of foreigners and refugees currently hosted in the Kingdom. According to the 2012 amendments to the 1950 General Statistics Law, a population and housing census is to be conducted every ten years. 

AMMAN — As the government vowed to allow Syrian refugees to join the Kingdom's labour market if the world helps with encouraging sufficient foreign investments, private sector figures and experts believe Syrians would not crowd out Jordanians for jobs but would only compete with hundreds of thousands of other guest workers. 

They told The Jordan Times in phone interviews recently that the majority of Jordanian jobseekers still steer away from certain sectors, such as agriculture, textiles and construction. 

Commenting on fears by some Jordanians that integrating Syrians into the labour market may affect opportunities offered to local workers, the sector leaders said the plan is to direct Syrians only to jobs shunned by Jordanians.  

On February 4 –– during London's Supporting Syria and the Region Conference –– donor countries pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to help Jordan cope with the Syrian refugee crisis in the form of grants and cheap loans, while the Kingdom pledged to integrate Syrians in the labour market, suggesting an approach that would not affect job opportunities for Jordanians. 

The proposed government measures could provide 200,000 job opportunities for Syrians in the coming years through new investments in five designated development zones: Irbid, Karak, Muwaqqar, Maan and Mafraq.

At a meeting with representatives and key figures from Mafraq Governorate earlier this month, His Majesty King Abdullah said that for each job opportunity created for a Syrian worker, five job opportunities will be created for Jordanians, describing the outcome of the  London conference as a beginning to be built on.

During the London conference, the EU pledged to ease the rules of origin requirements on Jordanian products bound for the EU and the government expects such a measure would generate investments and increase the Kingdom’s exports to the markets of the 28 member states of the union.  

Maher Mahrouq, director of the Jordan Chamber of Industry, agreed that the potential investments in the development zones would stimulate the Kingdom’s economy and create jobs for Jordanians and Syrians. 

He said that most investment opportunities could be in the industrial sector, where, he said, Jordanians represent around 85 per cent of its workforce. 

However, Mahrouq said that there are certain industries such as textiles and building materials that still struggle to lure Jordanian labour, adding that Syrians could replace foreign workers in these fields. 

“Jordan should work seriously on cashing the gains made at the London conference because it is an important opportunity for our economy,” he said, calling on decision makers to offer an attractive business environment and incentives for potential investors. 

Fathallah Emrani, president of the General Trade Union of Workers in Textile, Garment and Clothing Industries, said that garment factories still strive to meet the quota imposed by Labour Ministry, namely, that at least 25 per cent of the workforce should be Jordanians. 

The ratio was raised to 30 per cent as of the beginning of this year, but “unfortunately” people still seek government jobs, he said, indicating that the sector employs 44,000 guest workers from 10 different nationalities and only 16,000 Jordanians. 

There are 73 garment factories in industrial estates across the Kingdom, Emrani said, noting that only dozens of Syrians work in the sector. 

“There are plans to replace 2,000 foreign workers with Syrians,” he said, adding that integrating Syrians in the textile industry entails no risks to the chances of Jordanian jobseekers.

“There are thousands of jobs available now for Jordanians in garment factories; they just need to apply,” Emrani said. 

Labour market expert Ahmad Awad, director of the Phenix Centre for Economic and Informatics Studies, said that Syrian refugees work mainly in the services sector, construction and restaurants, where they compete for jobs already dominated by Egyptians. 

He said that there are already around 100,000 Syrians in the labour market without work permits, adding that Jordan’s pledge to allow Syrians work would help authorities regulate the market and generate more revenues for the Treasury. 

“They will only replace guest workers, particularly those whose work permits have expired,” Awad said. 

Jordan can take advantage of this deal by attracting more investments but there is an “urgent” need to review business-related legislation, he added. 

AMMAN — The Lower House of Parliament on Monday voted to maintain the women’s quota at 15 seats despite repeated demands by the women’s movement to increase it to 23.

The Lower House was deliberating Article 8, paragraphs A, B, C and D of the 2015 draft elections law, of which section B designated 15 seats for women.

Members of a coalition formed by women’s rights movements have been attending House sessions to discuss the draft elections law to reiterate their demands.

“This is a disappointing outcome. The way the Lower House Speaker [Atef Tarawneh] managed the debate and the voting did not allow the deputies to voice their real stand on Article 8 Paragraph B,” said Jordanian National Commission for Women Secretary General Salma Nims.

The debate on Paragraph A lasted almost two hours, after which Tarawneh ended the discussions before all deputies had the chance to make suggestions or proposals on Article 8 with all its sections.

His move was met with heavy criticism by many deputies who did not get the chance to speak and many were screaming and shouting in protest.

The speaker then called for a vote and Article 8 section A, B, C and D, passed without any further deliberations by the MPs on section B, C, and D.

Later on Monday, Tarawneh released a statement defending his decision, saying that over 50 lawmakers had the chance to speak about Article 8 over three hours.

In the statement, carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, the speaker said he has received the resignation of Deputy Hind Fayez (Central Badia), and it will be added to the agenda of the House’s next session for discussion.

Fayez had submitted her resignation because she was not given the chance to speak during the House’s deliberations over the elections bill.

Members of the coalition attending the session from the Parliament gallery carried posters reiterating their demand for a seat for women in each constituency after the voting, prompting security personnel to ask them to leave.

However, several deputies intervened and the coalition members returned to their seats to watch the remainder of the morning session.

Nims told The Jordan Times that several deputies promised the coalition that they will call on the speaker of the Lower House to put Article 8 Section B up for debate once MPs conclude discussions of the entire bill.

“We received a promise that they will discuss the bill again so we still have some hope,” she said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Wafaa Bani Mustafa (Jerash, 1st District), who submitted a proposal during the session to designate a seat for women in every constituency, said she will not give up.

“I will continue to lobby for the increase in seats when the right time comes,” Bani Mustafa told The Jordan Times.

Earlier in the session where lawmakers discussed Paragraph A, Deputy Ahmad Jaloudi (Amman, 1st District) recommended maintaining Article 8, Paragraph B as is because “the government decreased the seats of Parliament from 150 to 130, which means the percentage of women now in Parliament was raised from 10 per cent to 11.5 per cent”.  

On the other hand, MP Samir Oweis (Irbid, 1st District) reiterated Bani Mustafa’s demands, saying that women should have 23 seats in the Lower House.

Meanwhile, Deputy Mahmoud Kharabsheh (Balqa, 1st District) submitted a proposal cancelling the women’s quota all together, saying that “women should win in direct competition and do not need a quota”.

Speaking at the session, Minister of Political and Parliamentary Affairs Khalid Kalaldeh defended the government’s decision, saying that women could compete for 130 seats unlike men who will only compete for 115 seats.

“This will allow women hopefully to win more seats outside the quota,” the minister told MPs. 

The decision to escalate the coalition’s protest and attending sessions from the Parliament’s gallery was made after the Lower House Legal Committee last week endorsed the 2015 draft elections law without taking into consideration the women movement’s demands.

Currently, there are 18 women in the Lower House, 15 from the quota and 3 who won in direct elections.

AMMAN — Sixty-eight per cent of Jordanians and 55 per cent of the Kingdom’s overall population, including children under six years old, are covered by various types of health insurance, according to the latest population census.

Around 312,000 children benefit from a Royal Decree that provides all children under the age of six with free healthcare services. 

Excluding these children, the  health insurance coverage rates drops to 63 per cent among Jordanians and to 52 per cent among the entire population.

Results of the latest census showed that the Kingdom’s population stands at around 9.5 million, including 2.9 million guests, representing 30.6 per cent of the overall population.  

A recently issued Department of Statistics (DoS) report reviews the main results of the 2015 population census and presents information in a number of fields, including population size and demographics, health, education, economic participation, disabilities and marital status. 

The study of health insurance coverage rates seeks to evaluate duplication in health insurance as well as the burden the government bears due to covering non-Jordanians’ healthcare, according to DoS. 

It also aims at measuring health insurance coverage rates among all residents and identifying demographic information on those covered and not covered.   

Nine of out every 10 Jordanians in Tafileh and Karak governorates are covered by health insurance, mostly public or military health insurance, while 6 in every 10 Jordanians in Amman and Zarqa are covered by health insurance, the report said.

Health insurance coverage rates among Jordanian females reached around 65 per cent, while the coverage rate among their male counterparts was around 63 per cent, according to the report.

Ministry of Health insurance covers 41.7 per cent of Jordanians, followed by the Royal Medical Services (38 per cent) and private insurance firms (12.4 per cent). 

The remaining coverage is provided by university hospitals, UNRWA, international insurance, and other sources.

Around a quarter of non-Jordanians are covered by medical insurance, with over 60 per cent of those living in Jerash Governorate covered, followed by around 59 per cent of the non-Jordanian residents of Mafraq Governorate. 

The report suggests a relationship between the mentioned coverage rates for non-Jordanians and the presence of the Gaza Refugee Camp, which hosts some 20,000 Palestinian refugees, and the Zaatari Refugee Camp, which is home to some 80,000 Syrian refugees, in Jerash and Mafraq respectively. 

AMMAN — Jordan’s illiteracy rate remains among the lowest in the Arab world, with 9.1 per cent of residents aged above 13 classified as illiterate, according to the 2015 Population Census.

The survey showed that the illiteracy rate varies between citizens and non-Jordanians, standing at 6.7 per cent and 14.5 per cent respectively.

The census also revealed that the vast majority of Jordanian children (95 per cent) between the ages of 6 and 15 are enrolled in schools.

Seven out of ten Syrian children in the same age bracket go to school, with a slight increase among girls.

As for secondary education, 7 out of every 10 Jordanians between the ages of 16 and 18 go to school, while girls outweighed boys in this department by 8 per cent.

The secondary school enrolment rate drops drastically among Syrians, with only 2 out of every 10 boys and 3 out of every 10 girls enrolled in school at this level.

As for university, 3 out of 10 Jordanian boys and 4 out of 10 Jordanian girls between the ages of 19 and 23 are enrolled in universities.

A “small” percentage of Syrians go to universities, standing at 13.3 per cent.

At the pre-school stage, half of Jordanian children aged four to five go to kindergarten, compared to only 2 out of 10 Syrians of the same age.

The census also revealed that 87 per cent of those enrolled in government-run educational institutes are Jordanians, while 22 per cent are non-Jordanians.

On the other hand, non-Jordanians in private institutions make up 28 per cent, while non-Jordanians enrolled in UNRWA schools constitute 46 per cent.

When it comes to gender differences, the census revealed that males constitute 51 per cent of overall education enrolment, except at the secondary level, while the vast majority of vocational trainees (86 per cent) are men.

Furthermore, there is one female for every three male PhD holders.

Educational status indicators for non-Jordanians were similar to those among citizens, but non-Jordanian women were revealed to have more vocational training compared to their Jordanian peers. 

AMMAN — Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour on Monday said the 2015 population and housing census included several indicators that help researchers, students, politicians and planners make decisions based on facts.

Attending a conference to announce the main results of the census, Ensour highlighted the government’s keenness on accuracy, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

The population density varies from area to area in the Kingdom, which requires planners to take this fact into consideration and adjust their decisions to match reality, Ensour added.

Planning and International Cooperation Minister Imad Fakhoury noted that the main results of the census became available to institutions and data users within a short period of time that did not exceed two months, Petra reported.

The census also provides a database and indicators on economic, demographic, social and infrastructure sectors, which would contribute to improving decision making in the public and private sectors and civil community institutions, the minister added.

These data were available at the London donor conference earlier this month and helped the Kingdom prepare special files on citizens, residents and refugees, Petra quoted Fakhoury as saying.

AMMAN — Jordan’s population increased by nearly 87 per cent over a decade, with the number of the capital’s residents more than doubling, according to official data released Monday. 

A report released by the Department of Statistics (DoS) on the National population and Housing Census, carried out by the department late last year, showed that the Kingdom’s population in 2004 was 5.1 million, increasing by 4.4 million to reach 9.5 million in 2015. 

The majority of the growth over the past decade came from non-Jordanians, who represent around one third of the Kingdom’s population now as DoS estimated their number at 2.9 million, of whom 1.26 million are Syrians. 

According to DoS, Jordan also hosts 636,270 Egyptians, 634,182 Palestinians, 130,911 Iraqis, 31,163 Yemenis, 22,700 Libyans and 197,385 from other nationalities. 

Nearly half, or 49.7 per cent, of non-Jordanians in the Kingdom live in Amman, which is also home to 38.6 per cent of Jordanians. 

The capital’s population more than doubled since 2004 from 1.94 million to over 4 million in 2015, of whom 2.55 million are Jordanians and 1.45 million non-Jordanians, DoS figures showed. 

In terms of population per governorate, Irbid is currently the second most populated governorate with 1.77 million, followed by Zarqa (1.36 million), Mafraq (549,948), Balqa (491,709), Karak (316,629), Jerash (237,059), Madaba (189,192), Aqaba (188,160), Ajloun (176,080), Maan (144,082) and Tafileh (96,291). 

DoS said that Jordan’s population increased by more than tenfold in the past 55 years, adding that population growth between 2004 and 2015 was around 5.3 per cent, which the department attributed to waves of forced immigration and refugees into the country. 

The DoS report said the annual population growth rate among non-Jordanians was 18 per cent, while for Jordanians it stood at 3.1 per cent. 

DoS said that the recent census covered 1.977 million households, adding that the average size of families in the Kingdom reached 4.8 members. 

Family size dropped by two members when compared with 36 years ago, according to the report, which attributed it to economic, cultural and social factors and to the change in lifestyle and living costs.