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Jordan The Legislature
Under the Constitution, the bicameral legislature is called the
National Assembly and consists of the thirty-member appointed
Senate (sometimes called the House of Notables) and the popularly
elected House of Representatives (also called the Chamber of
Deputies). Prior to July 1988, both houses had an equal number of
representatives from each bank of the Jordan River. The
Constitution stipulates that the size of the Senate cannot be more
than half that of the lower house. Of the two chambers, the Senate
is regarded as the more elite; but like the lower chamber, it has
had little real influence in the legislative process. Although the
House of Representatives was vested with more legislative power
than the upper house, both chambers have been overshadowed by the
executive side of government.
The senators are appointed by the king for four-year terms,
with half the membership retiring every two years at the end of a
senate session. A senator may be reappointed. Qualifications for a
senator include a minimum age of forty years and prior government
or military service in relatively senior positions. Senators have
included present and past prime ministers, former members of the
House of Representatives who had been elected at least twice,
former senior judges and diplomats, and retired officers who have
attained the rank of general.
Members of the House of Representatives are elected to fouryear terms by secret ballot. Candidates must be Jordanian citizens
more than thirty years of age. Individuals representing foreign
interests or having material interests in any government contract
are disqualified. Also excluded are persons who have been debarred
from public office or who have blood ties to the king within a
prescribed degree of relationship. Ten of the eighty seats are
reserved for minorities including Christians, beduins, and
Circassians
(see Jordan - Ethnicity and Language
, ch. 2).
Voters must be at least nineteen years of age. Suffrage has
been universal since 1973, when women were enfranchised. All
Palestinian refugees who have adopted Jordanian citizenship enjoy
equal voting privileges with Transjordanians.
Prior to the November 1989 elections, the last national
elections for the House of Representatives had been held in April
1967. In 1970 Hussein cited the Israeli occupation of the West Bank
as reason for postponing elections, but he decreed that serving
members would continue in office until circumstances permitted the
holding of new elections. The 1974 decision by Arab heads of state
at a summit meeting in Rabat, Morocco, that the PLO was the sole
representative of the Palestinian people raised questions about the
political relationship of the West Bank to Jordan. In response to
this decision, in November 1974 Hussein dissolved the House of
Representatives, half of whose members represented the West Bank.
Nevertheless, Hussein was reluctant to sever ties to the Israelioccupied territory, and subsequently he decreed that elections for
a new house would be held in March 1976. Whether the elections
would include or exclude the West Bank had serious consequences for
Jordan's relations with the PLO. Moreover, some Arab states
interpreted the Rabat decision to mean that Jordan should renounce
its claims to the West Bank--an interpretation to which Hussein did
not then subscribe. As the time for the elections drew near,
Hussein decided that postponing the elections would be the prudent
course to avoid foreclosing future political options. Consequently,
in February 1976, he recalled the old house, with its West Bank
members. It convened briefly to approve the indefinite suspension
of elections for a new House of Representatives, then it adjourned.
In 1978, Hussein issued a royal decree that granted some
legislative functions to a newly created sixty-member appointive
body, the National Consultative Council (NCC). The NCC, which did
not include any members from the West Bank, had a limited mandate
to study, debate, and render advice on bills drafted by the Council
of Ministers. The NCC possessed no authority, however, to make
policy or to approve, amend, or reject any bill. The NCC provided
advisory opinions to the Council of Ministers on general state
policy when requested by the prime minister. The decree
establishing it stated that the NCC would be "lawfully dissolved
when the House of Representatives is elected and convened."
In January 1984, Hussein dismissed the NCC and reconvened the
suspended National Assembly. He appointed new members to the Senate
but called back those members of the House of Representatives who
were serving when the lower house last met in 1976. By-elections
were held in the East Bank in March to fill eight vacancies in the
house that had resulted from the deaths of members since the 1967
elections. In accordance with a January 1984 constitutional
amendment, the house also voted to fill seven vacant West Bank
seats. In March 1986, the house approved a new electoral law that
would increase its membership from 60 to 142; 71 members would be
elected from the East Bank, 60 from the West Bank, and 11 from
Palestinian refugee camps on the East Bank; this law was never
implemented. In 1987 the government began registering Jordanians on
the East Bank so that they could vote in parliamentary elections
scheduled for 1988; these would have been the first national
elections in more than twenty-one years. At the end of 1987,
however, registration was halted and the king issued a royal decree
that postponed elections for two years.
In July 1988, Hussein renounced Jordan's claims to the West
Bank. In light of the new political situation, the king dissolved
the House of Representatives. A royal decree issued in October
postponed indefinitely elections for a reorganized legislature. A
subsequent decree in December abolished the ministerial-level
Office of Parliamentary Affairs. Following antigovernment riots in
April 1989, however, outgoing Prime Minister Rifai promised that
the interim government would concentrate on carrying out the long
delayed parliamentary elections. In July Prime Minister Shakir
scheduled the elections for November. They were the first national
elections for the House of Representatives in more than twenty-two
years.
Data as of December 1989
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