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Majority of opinion leaders support elections bill

By Dana Al Emam - Sep 08,2015 - Last updated at Sep 08,2015

AMMAN — A total of 65 per cent of the country's opinion leaders expect the draft elections law to result in a better parliament than the current one, according to the results of an opinion poll released Tuesday.

In the survey carried out between September 3 to 6 by the Centre for Strategic Studies (CSS) at the University of Jordan around 80 per cent of the 700 interviewed opinion leaders said they agree with the proposed bill.

Furthermore, a total of 76 per cent of the sample said Jordan is moving in the right direction, with senior statesmen being the most optimistic as 85 per cent of them agreed to the statement, while businesspeople were the least optimistic with 68 per cent of them agreeing.

"This could be the first draft law to achieve such high consensus rates among opinion leaders," CSS Director Musa Shteiwi said at a meeting with the press.

The interviewees included 100 personalities under each of the following categories: university professors, senior statesmen, writers and journalists, leaders of labour and professional associations, leaders of political parties, senior business people and specialised professionals.

Statesmen, 98 per cent of whom said they are acquainted with the details of the draft law, were largely supportive of the bill, as 87 per cent of them said they agree with it.

Meanwhile, leaders of political parties, 98 per cent of whom said they are acquainted with the details of the draft law, registered lower levels of agreement, which stood at 76 per cent.

Concerning the role of the draft law in enhancing partisan life in Jordan, 60 per cent of the overall sample expected a positive effect, while only 53 per cent of political party leaders agreed. 

“The majority of political parties in Jordan are small in the number of members; therefore, it could be difficult for them to win seats according to the new proposed system,” Shteiwi said, adding that the multimember lists encourage the formation of large political coalitions.   

The vast majority of surveyed opinion leaders (92 per cent) agree with reducing seats from 150 to 130, while a majority of 71 per cent was in favour of the current list system, which does not exclude lists to political parties.

Moreover, 56 per cent of the total sample expected the draft law to form homogenous parliamentary blocs.

When it comes to women’s quota, 41 per cent of the overall sample said they agree with the proposed women’s quota with fixed 15 seats, while 29 per cent said they prefer women’s quota to remain open as in the current law.

“The proposed law is not perfect, but is expected to enhance political culture among political parties, candidates and voters,” Shteiwi said, calling for building on the positive changes that the proposed bill suggests.

 

Around 50 per cent of the sample believes the Lower House will pass the bill as it is and that the Senate will also pass it without changes, Shteiwi said lawmakers should take the remarks and comments of politicians and experts on the bill into consideration to improve it.

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