Governorate councils elect their presidents

AMMAN — The newly elected governorate councils convened on Sunday for their first meetings, during which they elected their presidents and vice presidents, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.  

Interior Minister Ghaleb Zu’bi, whose ministry is in charge of overseeing procedures related to these local bodies, stressed last week the importance of the meetings as a “milestone in the history of the Jordanian state to enhance local governance”. 

The meeting is stipulated in Article 33 of the 2015 Decentralisation Law, which is meant to take the democratic process to a new level, where people are more engaged in public life. 

Governorate councils, which were elected on August 15 along with municipal councils and mayors, have replaced assigned consultative councils with local executive councils, in a bid to enhance the oversight role of citizens and public participation in decision making as developmental planning and allocation of funds will be vested in the new councils.

Article 6 of the law stipulates that the Cabinet appoints as members of the governorate councils, upon a recommendation by the interior minister, no more than 15 per cent of the number of elected members, provided that one-third of this percentage is allocated to women, who also enjoy a 10 per cent quota of the elected members.