Proportional representation incentivizes political parties to merge — Rased

Rased
(Photo: Rased Facebook)
AMMAN — Program manager of Al-Hayat Center for Civil Society Development (Rased), Amro Al-Nawayseh, said on Friday that the required proportional representation (minimum threshold) percentage incentivizes political parties to merge with each other, especially small parties to ensure they have a seat in parliament. اضافة اعلان

Nawayseh added that countries “that aspire to have a programmatic political parliament based on powerful programmatic blocs use the minimum threshold percentage”.

The House of Representatives Election Bill of 2021 defines the minimum threshold percentage vote as “The minimum threshold marks the minimum number of votes a list has to receive to win a seat in Parliament.”

Such percentage will be used for the first time in Jordanian electoral history, said Nawayseh. However, he emphasized that this is an international practice applied in several countries.

“Many countries have a 5 percent thresholds, including Germany and Poland. … There are countries with higher thresholds like Turkey, which has a 10 percent one. Meanwhile, Palestine has 2 percent,” said Nawayseh.

The elections draft law specifies that a list must win the votes of 7 percent of the voters in its constituency to win a seat for that district.


Read more National news