Kalaldeh Says Draft Elections Law Will Strengthen Jordan as Democratic State

20 October 2015<br /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /> Minister of Political and Parliamentary Affairs Dr. Khaled Kalaldeh said Jordan&rsquo;s leadership was keen to advance political reforms by introducing legislation that secure the Kingdom&rsquo;s democracy and keep channels to peaceful dialogue and tolerance open. &nbsp;<br /> &nbsp;<br /> Addressing students at the Jordan Media Institute (JMI) on Tuesday 20 October, Kalaldeh said reform laws being drafted seek to ensure maximum transparency, democracy and inclusion, especially those related to political and parliamentary life as well as decentralization and municipalities. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /> &nbsp;<br /> He noted that the draft elections law being debated in Parliament has transcended the negative aspects of previous bills by abolishing the one vote system and focusing on the open proportional lists. He said each list should include at least three candidates organized in alphabetical order. The number of votes each candidate gets will be counted and not according to his or her standing in the list.<br /> &nbsp;<br /> He added that once approved by Parliament, the new law will take the country into a new political phase and will be highly popular because of its ability to achieve integrity and justice among candidates and voters. The law is being applied in 46 countries, he added.<br /> &nbsp;<br /> The draft also aims to control the use of &ldquo;political money&rdquo; to influence the voting and imposes penalties on election monitors in case they break the law.<br /> &nbsp;<br /> The minister later responded to questions from JMI students and addressed the issue of vote counting and quotas in the draft, and defined concepts of open and closed lists. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /> &nbsp;