Two new election tickets emerge ahead of official candidacy period

Source: 
The Jordan Times
Publication date: 
Dec 20 2012

Two new political groups announced their nominees for the national ticket on Thursday, two days ahead of the start of the official period to file candidacy applications for the January 23 parliamentary polls.

The “Nation List”, which will be a nucleus of a new political party, announced on Thursday its 27 candidates on the national level, headed by former deputy Lower House speaker Atef Tarawneh.

The new group is expected to announce its full programme next week, according to Tarawneh.

“This is a list that is going to make change,” Tarawneh said at a press conference on Thursday.

Former deputy Khalil Attiyeh, who plans to run for the polls at the local district level in Amman, endorsed Tarawneh’s list. His brother Khamis comes second on the ticket after the founder.

This is a list that is going to make change

The Elections Law adopts a mixed system where each voter will have two votes, one at the constituency level and another designated for a 27-seat national list. Parties and political groups that field candidates for the national list decide the order of candidates.

The group will work on promoting its programme in the next few days to mobilise supporters, according to Attiyeh.

The list represents the first strong coalition between East Bank Jordanians and Jordanians of Palestinian origin, according to observers.

The ticket includes several leading figures, with head of the Jordan Press Association Tareq Momani in fourth place and former president of the Jordan Medical Association Zuhair Abu Fares third.

The list also includes several leading businessmen, a lawyer, economists and university professors, with one woman in 20th place. 

The group selected a sketch of the sun as its logo, according to Tarawneh who said that the sun is the symbol of “freedom, change and reform”.

Meanwhile, former deputy Abdul Jalil Maaytah announced a ticket under his leadership, with 14 members.

Under the Independent Elections Commission’s regulations, parties and political groups can field between nine and 27 candidates at the national level.

Names of the nominees will be revealed next week, according to the group’s spokesperson Eid Abu Qudeiri.

The group’s programme will focus on strengthening national unity, serve the underprivileged community and fight corruption, according to Abu Qudeiri.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Centrist Party, which has recently announced its national list team, selected “scale” as its logo. 

 

Khaled Neimat

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