House criticised for holding only one monitoring meeting in ordinary session

AMMAN — The Civil Coalition for Monitoring the Jordanian Parliamentary Elections (Rasid) on Saturday said the Lower House had “once again” suffered from lack of quorum in the ninth week of its ordinary session.

In a statement, the coalition said the lack of quorum in the last morning session of 2014 had prompted Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh cancel the evening session, during which MPs were scheduled to discuss the government’s decision to increase electricity prices as of the New Year.

Rasid noted that the House only held one monitoring session since the beginning of second ordinary session, which affected its role in monitoring government performance.

The coalition also criticised the Senate for endorsing the 2014 Income Tax Law as referred from the Lower House in less than 72 hours.

Senators said the decision is in line with the country’s higher interests, since Jordan committed itself to ensuring that the law goes into effect in 2015 based on an agreement with the International Monetary Fund.