AMMAN —
Elections for the professional syndicates have been postponed multiple times following
defense orders issued by the government. As the health situation and number of
COVID-19 infections are affected by every active sector of the Kingdom, defense
orders were imposed to combat the infection rate by limiting social
interactions among citizens as much as possible.
اضافة اعلان
Government
spokesperson Sakher Dudin said in media statements in late April that “No sort
of elections will be conducted as long as there’s a curfew and closed sectors.”
Despite holding parliamentary elections at the end of last year, and setting a
date for municipal and local elections in August of this year, the government
is yet to allow elections for professional syndicates to take place.
Head of the
Professional Associations Council Abdel Hadi Falahat told Jordan News that he had received promises that elections would be permitted in April for
syndicates with a small number of members, while the elections for medium-sized
syndicates would be allowed in June or July. The largest syndicates would have
to wait until the end of the year.
“Small
syndicates were supposed to hold their elections in April. The government told
us to postpone the elections because of the implications for the
epidemiological situation,” Falahat said. “They didn’t set a specific date to
run the elections again.”
The small
syndicates that were supposed to hold elections include the syndicates of geologists, construction
contractors, and journalists.
“The
government told us that they would set a meeting to discuss the new dates of
the elections,” he said, adding that the syndicates had not received further
updates despite trying to “contact them multiple times. ... I wish they would
take our situation more seriously.”
One
syndicate leader told Jordan News, on condition of anonymity, that
syndicates’ election laws are supervised by each syndicate’s general assembly.
Those election laws conflict with the defense order.
Chief of the
geologists’ syndicate Sakher Nsour told Jordan News that he “cannot
fully process the reason why we’re not treated like the parliament or the
municipalities.”
The
syndicates’ law specifies “that the elections have to take place. The general
assembly refused to give us an exemption to (hold the election) virtually,”
Nsour said, despite the fact that elections “have been continuously postponed
for almost one year.”
Holding the
elections is not the only challenge his syndicate is facing, the geologist
said. “We had to cut off retirement payments,” as members stopped paying their
dues, he said, explaining that “they know that the elections are not going to
be conducted any time soon.”
Nsour
pointed out that there are multiple solutions the government can implement to
help them hold the elections on time, such as vaccinating the members of the
general assembly before conducting the elections, or at least testing them
using the
PCR station at the syndicate.
There are
currently around 5,000 members of the Geologists Syndicate, less than 1,000 of whom
pay their monthly dues. “If I’m being generous, I’d say that 250 people attend
the elections. Social distancing measures can easily be adopted; the theater at
the syndicates’ complex can fit 1,000 socially distanced people, and the
government knows.” Nsour elaborated.
Chief of
Construction Contractors Syndicate Ahmad Alyaqoub confirmed that the elections
were postponed by the government, and no election date has been provided. He
said his syndicate did not mind being at the “front of the line as a test of
the effectiveness of syndicates’ elections during COVID-19, we want to get the
elections over with.”
“There are
other people at the syndicate that want to be chief or spokesperson of the
syndicate. We need to give them the opportunity they deserve,” Alyaqoub added.
“I wish that the government would elaborate more, now that the pandemic is
receding.”
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