Major news in Jordan on June 21: Protest at Parliament over passing elections law
Top news in <Ammon>: Protest at Parliament over passing elections law
Dozens of activists and opposition parties members on Wednesday protested in front of the Parliament over endorsing the 2012 draft law to be discussed by the Senate House soon.
They threw tomatoes at the parliament building in Alabdali area to express their anger of passing election law, and the new endorsed electoral system.
Heavy presence of police and ani-riots forces surrounding the parliament building.
On Tuesday, the Lower House of Parliament endorsed a permanent and new elections law.
Under the new legislation, the number of the house members is raised to 140 from 120 now. Fifteen seats will be allocated for women quota and 17 for the national list while the remain 108 seats will go for local constituencies across the Kingdom.
With the endorsement of the long-awaited bill, the lower house has now passed all political-reform related legislation in the Kingdom which includes the Constitutional Court, political parties, the Independent Elections Commission, and municipalities laws as well as the constitutional amendments.
The new law stipulates that each voter shall have two votes; one for the national list and the other for his/her local constituency.
This is the first permanent elections law to be endorsed in the Kingdom since 1989 after which all parliamentary votes were held according to temporal laws.
Moreover, the forthcoming parliamentary polls, which His Majesty King Abdullah II ordered to be held before the end of this year, will be under the oversight of the Independent Elections Commission.