Jordan King Abdallah II issued a royal decree to dissolve and assign new members to the Jordanian Senate (the King's Council), the upper house of the legislative authority to include wider representation and ensure a political balance between the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The amendment seeks to address the inadequate representation of women and various geographical regions and ensure demographic balance. It also aims to ensure Christian, Circassian, and Chechen representation, especially since the dissolved Senate was formed before the parliamentary elections on Nov. 11, 2020.
The Jordanian constitution grants the king powers to dissolve and form the Senate at any time, while the constitution stipulates that the term of the council’s presidency will be two years.
The decree retained Faisal al-Fayez as the head of the council for the sixth year in a row.
The council's powers are limited to discussing and approving or rejecting legislation. It is also limited to government oversight, without having the right to a vote of confidence, but it can submit and refer oversight questions for interrogations.
The new formation brought back to the council three former heads of government, Abdullah Ensour, Hani Mulki, and Samir Rifai.
It also included thirty former ministers, notably the former foreign minister, Abdul Ilah Khatib, the economists Rajai Muasher and Ziad Fariz, and the former Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) Khaled Kalaldeh.
Furthermore, the new formation included nine former deputies and union figures, ten women, eight Christians, five of Circassian and Chechen origin, and 14 members of Palestinian origin.
The Senate includes 65 members, half of the House of Representatives, and the Jordanian monarch has the right to reduce the number but not to increase it.
The reshuffle included several parties, unions, and other figures affiliated with the opposition, most notably the former lawmaker from the Together List, Khaled Ramadan, and the former opposition deputy Ali Sneid.
The royal decision to reconstitute the Senate came days after the fifth government reshuffle made by Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh, which included an appointment of a third deputy prime minister for economic affairs, minister of state for public sector modernization.
It also included three new female ministers, adding up to five. The amendment merged four new ministries into two and maintained the combination of the Ministries of Education and Higher Education.
The government reshuffle and re-formation of the “King’s Council" comes ahead of the parliamentary session scheduled for Nov. 13, which will begin with a royal speech, followed by the speaker elections, amid reports about possible competition.
