Maaita: We must move from individual to collective action in politics. And parties are the only way.
June 2, 2022
The president of the Independent Electoral Commission, Engineer Musa al-Maaita, expressed optimism about the development of party political life in the near future, compromising the impact of the new election law in supporting efforts to modernize the political system, through the participation of an active party with a decided share of the seats in the next parliament.
Al-Maaita stressed that the independent body's relationship with the parties begins with the law and ends with it, pointing out that the body in accordance with its constitutional and legal powers, does not interfere in the work of parties politically, but is a major party in the efforts to raise awareness and education in the procedures in force and political terms and concepts contained in the law, pointing out that "neutrality is the philosophy of transferring the file of parties to the commission."
"The Jordanian state is now in the stage of political modernization, not political transformation, and we must move from individual work in political life to collective action," al-Maaita said in an interview with Al-Ghad.
"We must move from individual work to collective action in politics," he said, adding that this will only be done "through political parties," where he said: "It is true that this may not happen from the first session, but certainly when the elections of the 21st Parliament, where the situation will change and there will be parties representing all the currents and interests of different society, the party is based on a representative mechanism for different and possibly contradictory interests."
The process of developing political life was gradually being implemented, beginning with constitutional amendments and entering into force, followed by amendments to the electoral and party laws.
"Unfortunately, in the past, parties have failed to be incubators for political life, not only because of their previous law, but also because of political and social factors that have contributed to their failure," he said, hoping for the new party law to establish the principle of political pluralism through parliaments based on party collective action competing for the public interest.
He stressed that the mainstay of reaching that stage is the new election law, which for the first time expanded the seats of parties in parliament, which will be in the first election cycle to come by 30% until 50% of the seats in the 21st Council, and then 60% in the 22nd Parliament.
The text of the interview followed:
Party file
- Today the party file is the prerogative of the Independent Electoral Commission, is the commission ready for this file?
The transfer of the file of political parties to the Independent Electoral Commission is the result of recent constitutional amendments, the origin of the demand adopted by political forces since 2011 that governments should not be a party to deal with parties in terms of licensing, in order to ensure the independence of the parties.
Since the completion of the amendment to the legislation governing the constitutional channels, the Commission has been ready to receive this file, where it has established a specialized unit equipped with all the necessary equipment, and has a staff trained in the application of the applicable laws, and began its work early in clarifying the procedural aspects of the law of parties, and preparing to automate the steps of law enforcement within the party unit in the authority, chief among which is the modernization of the party register and documenting and archiving all the requirements of the law.
It also develops interactive programs aimed at simplifying understanding of procedures and licensing requirements in accordance with the provisions of the new law.
- How much does the commission have to do with the parties? Where do you start and where do you end?
The commission is responsible for implementing the laws governing and we will abide by it, and will not interfere in the policies and positions of the parties, which is originally the purpose of the constitutional amendments, in granting the parties their own independence, and the status they deserve, especially in light of the desired modernization to reach parliamentary governments supported by a parliamentary majority.
We will be committed to educating parties about their rights and duties, and will ensure that they are supported in training and technical areas in different areas, enabling the purpose of supporting party life.
- The Commission has published the evidence on the party's record, including the period of correction, and here we ask about your expectations about the fate of many parties, which are likely not to be able to do so?
Yes, the Commission published the procedural and guidance evidence for political parties and the models adopted before the law came into force on 15 May 2022, and sent that evidence to the 56 political parties to correct their situation, and the evidence helps the new parties in the registration and licensing mechanism, and to date no party has come forward explicitly and clearly for the establishment, although we are witnessing a broad movement looking for opportunities for the birth of new parties.
We cannot say for sure whether there are parties that will close or not, the ability to continue is asked about by the party and not by the body, we are responsible for the application of the law, and we ask about it if we fail to implement it, therefore, the party that does not correct its situation during the period of time granted to it will be applied to the law.
Funding system
- Party finance system when will the light come to light? What are the recommendations of the Independent Electoral Commission so that the system is supportive of parties and officially keen to develop party life?
First, the establishment of the party financing system is the authority of the Government, which is responsible for it, but when it is issued it will be subject to the supervision of the Authority and under the authority of law enforcement with fair terms and conditions, and the commission really aspires to support political parties in their future election campaigns, and in order to maximize the chances of enabling them to compete real in the upcoming elections, which were given many advantages by the new election law, including running for the seats in the General District to which the law allocated 41 seats.
Parties can also take advantage of the opportunities to run for local constituencies in flexible alliances, and benefit from two opportunities to run, not just one.
The funding system according to the law is subject to the foundations, and this is a feature of the new law, where there will be a budget for the party through the opening of a bank account to which accounting assets apply, and the law required the appointment of a chartered accountant to audit and send a copy of the annual budget and final financial statements to the Authority and a signed statement from the Secretary on the party's financial resources in detail, and a detailed list of all donations and donations received by the party during the previous fiscal year.
The law also gave the Commission access to the party's accounts, check its financial constraints and prepare a report, to be sent to the party's secretary-general, and the party funding system has remained inadequate from 2008-2019 to develop political life, and today we believe that the basis of party finance is the results of participation in the elections until justice is achieved and the opportunities between parties are equal in competition.
This funding is from the general budget, which means that the citizen is a partner in it, and must be directed according to the citizen's wishes.
Electoral records
- What is the importance of updating the electoral register, and where has the Commission reached it?
In accordance with the election law, the Commission must update the voter slates twice a year, by coordinating with the Civil Status and Passports Department. At the beginning of January and July of each year, the updated voter register is published on the Website of the Independent Electoral Commission, in accordance with the provisions of the law and the executive instructions issued under it.
The most prominent development in the new election law is that voters will be redistributed to constituencies, depending on the voter's place of residence, not where he or she is born or his home town, which means that we will see significant changes in the voter slate that require a special awareness campaign for those who wish to correct their situation, so that election day is not surprised that his name is not in the constituency in which he used to vote.
In order to do so, there is an urgent need to establish a system of districting from the Government, so that we can reverse it on the voters' tables, and it is also important that no voter register awareness and education campaign be interpreted as a prelude to early parliamentary elections, but the law needs to explain the latest developments and provide them in a simplified manner to the electorate in order to achieve the goal of expanding the participation base.
Here we will seek to overcome the challenge of declaring tables, and we will simultaneously announce the updating of the tables in their legal time as a legal entitlement without political connotations.
Promoting electoral participation
- Electoral participation remains the most prominent challenge for everyone, especially in Amman and Zarqa, what has the new law provided them and what will the Commission do to enhance their participation?
It must be made clear that high or low turnout is not an exclusive responsibility of the Independent Electoral Commission, but we are concerned with carrying out awareness and education campaigns that attract the attention of the electorate and motivate them to exercise their constitutional right to political participation and the importance of choosing who to represent. At the same time, the Commission finds that its greatest responsibility is to manage the electoral process with the utmost standards of integrity, impartiality and accuracy, in accordance with the provisions of the law, and that will inevitably create confidence in the importance of participation.
Therefore, the percentages of satisfactory participation come through the application of integrity standards, and also paves the way for the beginning of the expansion of the circle of popular confidence in the commission's procedures, especially after the significant increase in confidence in the procedures of the Authority during the recent electoral process, which was supported by the recent poll conducted by the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan.
There are also partners in raising participation rates, representing all official institutions, civil society institutions and the media, who serve the same goal and purpose, and in the future we rely on the parties themselves and candidates in their ability to encourage voters through their electoral platforms.
In parallel, the new election law adopted as we have mentioned the place of residence for the voter and its redistribution to the voters' lists is also expected to increase participation rates in Amman and Zarqa, and the party list at the public district level is hoped to play a role in promoting participation in densely populated cities.
But that is not enough, as we are working today within awareness programs such as them (I participate in cooperation with the Crown Prince Foundation) through which we seek to encourage the participation and targeting of young people. We are also working on a special strategy for women and reviewing the challenges of participation of persons with disabilities with a view to enhancing their electoral participation.
What concerns us in broad electoral participation is that citizens realize that they have interests in the next parliament, and a large part of this interest is achieved by the current election law, and voters must realize that the upcoming parliaments are the lever of parliamentary governments that are active in decision-making and orientation.
In any case, we at the Commission are looking at the real reasons for not participating in some cities, and this is not solved by impression or analysis, but needs a scientific study to be prepared for, and we will not work alone, but we will work to strengthen the approach of partnership with all the partners concerned, this is a shared national responsibility.
The principle of expanding participation is rooted not only through the new election and party laws, awareness and education activities on the part of the Commission, but also efforts must be made from others, such as the Ministries of Education and Higher Education, and the Ministry of Education is in the process of developing curricula for the tenth and eleventh classes dealing with the concepts of democracy, diversity and the concept of the party, and in the future it will launch a curriculum called "Civic Civic Education".
- At the electoral level, there are successive successes for the Commission in managing the previous elections, how are you preparing to run the next elections under a new law?
Of course, there will be new tasks for the Authority, the most important of which is to raise awareness of the new law, which contains important details of the seats of women, youth and parties. The tasks will be through continuity of training, which we have actually begun, but the priority today is to update the voter register by place of residence, and to announce it, so that any victim can correct his situation according to the procedures followed, so that no citizen is surprised to change his constituency and the register is actually the focus of integrity procedures.
- Personally, what amendments would you have added to the new election law?
I was with the closed relative list at the national level, and with the increase in women's seats, these things were achieved in the new law.
But I wished that we would apply the idea of running on the list, both local and public, on the basis of a man and a woman, so that women would have a higher representation in parliaments, but we might need to discuss the idea in the future.
