The proposed amendments also included a stipulation that the Prime Minister, whose government has lost the vote of confidence of the House of Representatives, may not be assigned to form the next government.
The amendments also propose that 25% of the members of the Senate or members of the House of Representatives may resort to the Constitutional Court to request interpretation of laws and regulations or to directly challenge their constitutionality, instead of the majority. The aim, according to the committee, is to enable the parliamentary minority, the parties represented in Parliament, and the parliamentary blocs to carry out their supervisory and legislative role by resorting to the Constitutional Court.
The amendments also included the introduction of a constitutional provision that allows adding conditions for membership in the House of Representatives under the electoral law, in addition to what is stated in the Constitution, allowing parties to participate in parliamentary elections through lists limited to party candidates.
The committee also proposed that the resignation of any member of the House of Representatives be considered effective from the date of its submission, without the need for the approval of the House. It also called for the term of the Speaker of the House to be one year instead of two, to give other members of the House the right to choose and annually evaluate the performance of the Speaker. Among the amendments are also granting members of the House the right to vote by two-thirds of the members to dismiss the Speaker.
A constitutional article was proposed requiring that the ownership of gifts in cash or in-kind obtained by a member of the Senate or the House because of their membership shall be transferred to the state’s public treasury.
The amendments also stipulated that parliamentary immunity should be limited to arrest and not trial, in order to uphold the rule of law and not to obstruct litigation, while maintaining the necessary and sufficient immunity for parliament members to carry out their legislative and oversight role.
The committee recommended amending the article that requires the resignation of the government when the parliament is dissolved, so that the government’s resignation is obligatory when the parliament is dissolved four months before the end of its constitutional term.
The committee also called for the enactment of an article requiring that two-thirds of the present members of the Senate and House of Representatives approve the laws regulating elections, political parties, the judiciary, the Independent Election Commission, the Audit Bureau, and the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission (these laws are currently approved by a majority).
Source: jordan News Agency