Women's rights activists to protest elections bill during Lower House discussions

AMMAN — Members of a coalition to support a seat for women in each of the constituencies that will be designated in the 2015 draft elections law will gather at 10am on Sunday at the Parliament's gallery to reiterate their demands.

“We have called on the coalition members to be at the Parliament’s gallery in the morning to show the MPs that we will not give up,” said Jordanian National Commission for Women Secretary General Salma Nims. 

Nims told The Jordan Times that the coalition agreed that there will always be “members at each of the sessions that will take place to push for our demands”.

The Lower House is expected to start deliberations over the draft elections law on Sunday.

The decision to escalate the coalition’s demands was made after the Lower House Legal Committee last week endorsed the 2015 draft elections law without taking into consideration the women movement’s demands.

Several women's rights activists have expressed their discontent and frustration over the committee’s decision to pass the bill almost exactly as referred by the government with some "insignificant" changes.

Women leaders told The Jordan Times in previous remarks that both the government and the legal committee turned their backs on the women movement’s demands.

Under the 2015 elections bill, the number of Lower House members has been reduced from 150 to 130, based on the open proportional list at the district level.

Fifteen seats out of the 130 are allocated for the women's quota.