Published in 2014 by: Al Quds Center for Political Studies Amman Office 7, Haifa Street, Jabal Al hussein P.O.Box: 213566 Amman 11121 Jordan Tel: +962 6 565 1931 / +962 6 565 1932 / +962 6 569 0567 Fax: +962 6 567 4868 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.alqudscenter.org Beirut Office Hamra St. Mizan Building 6th floor P.O.Box: 113-6684 Tel: +961 1 750282 Fax: +961 1 750281 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.alqudscenter.org Konrad Adenauer Foundation 23, Isma’eel Haqi Abdoh St. Sweifieh P.O. Box: 831025 Amman 11183 Jordan Tel: +962-6-5929777 Fax: +962-6-5933087 Email: [email protected] Website: www.kas.de/amman © Al Quds Center for Political Studies & Konrad Adenauer Foundation ISBN: 978-9957-427-30-6 Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 5 First: Constitutional Amendments .................................................................................. 7 (1) Independent Electoral Commission ......................................................................... 7 (2) Transfer of the competence to consider challenges to the validity of election victories of members of the Lower House to the judiciary ............... 7 (3) Ordinary Electoral Law ............................................................................................... 8 Second: The New Electoral Law Number 25 of 2012: Rules and Applications ........................................................................................ 9 (1) Local districts ............................................................................................................... 10 (2) Characteristics of the national lists ........................................................................ 10 a- Type of list ............................................................................................................... 10 b- Number of nominees in the national list ......................................................... 10 c- System of higher remainder ................................................................................ 10 d- Ratio of deduction in the participating lists ................................................... 12 (3) Local, regional and international monitoring of the elections ........................ 13 (4) Political money ............................................................................................................ 17 (5) Financial disclosure .................................................................................................... 17 Third: Position of the political parties towards the new electoral law ............ 19 (1) Opposition parties ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 19 (2) Moderate parties .......................................................................................................... 20 Fourth: Impact of the electoral law on the participation of political parties in the elections ....................................................................................................... 21 (1) Boycott of the Islamic Action Front and other political parties of the elections ......................................................................................................................... 21 (2) One vote and boycott of the elections ................................................................... 21 (3) Participation of political parties in the elections ................................................ 23 Fifth: Results of the participation of political parties in the elections ������������� 25 Sixth: The view of the political parties of the effects of the electoral law and the distribution of seats on the representation of political parties .................................................................................................... 28 (1) Evaluation of the electoral law and the participation of political parties in the elections of 2013. ................................................................................................. 28 (2) View of the political parties of the development of the electoral law .......... 32 Seventh: Orientations of the political parties towards developing the political parties Law of 2012.......................................................................... 37 References and Sources ...................................................................................................... 40 Annexes .................................................................................................................................... 41 Introduction This study seeks to explore the impact of the new electoral law of 2012, particularly insofar as the method of distributing the electoral seats between the electoral districts, on the representation of political parties in the Jordanian Lower House of Parliament. It is a known fact that the previous electoral laws since the adoption of the one vote system in 1993, used to have the effect of marginalizing the electoral standing of political parties, alongside reinforcing the effect of tribal, ethnic, familial and religious allegiances and loyalties, and the influence of financial capability on electoral influence. Nevertheless, the adoption of the new electoral law of a mixed system combining between the vote of the local district and another vote for a closed relative list, in the shadow of better conditions at the level of the soundness and integrity of the electoral process provided by the constitutional amendments of 2011, was considered a development that may open the door for enhancing the parliamentary weight of political parties. However, the practical effects of the new electoral system were far short not only of ambitions, but also of the minimum expectations. 6 First: Constitutional Amendments The most prominent constitutional amendments related to elections after which the new electoral law Number 25 of 2012 was promulgated were as follows: (1) Independent Electoral Commission: One of the constitutional amendments related to elections stipulated in Article (67), the second paragraph1 to establish an independent commission by law which would oversee the parliamentary electoral process and would manage it in all its stages, while also overseeing any other elections to be decided by the Council of Ministers. Moreover, the law governing the formation and activity and jurisdiction of the Independent Electoral Commission2 was enacted on 9 April 2012. The said Law Number 11 of 2012 stipulates that the Commission possesses a juristic personality and financial and administrative independence. The Commission has a board of commissioners3 consisting of a chairman and four members to be appointed by royal decree for a non-renewable term of six years. A committee chaired by the prime minister and with the membership of the Speaker of the Senate, Speaker of the Lower House, and the chairman of the judicial council is responsible for preparing a list of names suggested for being appointed to the council to be referred to the King. The board shall issue the executive instructions necessary for applying the provisions of the Law of the Commission and any regulations issued pursuant thereto (see Annex 1). Among the responsibilities of the Board is to issue a detailed report on every election in all its phases, and to refer it to the King, and to have it published (cited) in the Official Gazette.4 (2) Transfer of the competence to consider challenges to the validity of election victories of members of the Lower House to the judiciary The constitutional amendments of 2011 through Article 71 assigned to the judiciary represented by the Court of Appeal the right to adjudicate whether a member of parliament was validly elected, instead of the Lower House itself. The period for contesting the validity of the election of a member of parliament is 15 days, where 1 According to the amendment cited in the Official Gazette, Issue Number 5117, date 1/10/2011. 2 The Independent Electoral Commission Law, Official Gazette, Issue Number 5152, 9/4/2012. 3 A royal decree was issued appointing the board of commissioners of the Independent Electoral Commission on 6/5/2012 as follows: Mr. Abdel Ilah Al-Khatib, chairman, Mr. Riyadh AL-Shak`a member, Mr. Atef Al-Btoush, member, Mr. Muhammad Ali Al- Alawneh, member, Mr. Eid Al-Juway`ed, member. (Published in the Official Gazette, Issue Number 5158, on 16/5/2012). 4 The detailed report on the events of the elections 2013 was published in the Official Gazette, Issue No. 5221, on 5/5/2013. 8 the contesting elector, whether a candidate or not, must present his appeal to the Court of Appeal to which is affiliated his electoral district, indicating the reasons for challenging the validity of the election. The Court of Appeal shall render its decisions within 30 days from the date of filing the appeal, and its decisions shall be final and irrevocable. The Court shall either dismiss the appeal or accept it in principle, and in such case it shall announce the name of the winning member of parliament. And in case it becomes evident to the court as a result of its considering the appeal presented to it that the election procedures in the district regarding which the appeal is made are not compliant with the provisions of the law, in such case it is authorized to render a decision invalidating the election in that district irrespective of the number of candidates. During the period subsequent to announcing