‘52% of attending MPs voted for endorsing budget bill’

AMMAN — A little over half of the 124 Lower House deputies who attended the voting session on the draft budget voted for endorsing it, the Civil Coalition for Monitoring Elections and the Performance of Elected Councils (Rasid) said on Sunday.

Rasid’s report, which was carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, said 52 per cent of the attending MPs approved the draft state budget law, while 52.4 per cent out of the attending 122 lawmakers voted for endorsing the draft law for the budgets of independent government units.

A total of 130 deputies make up the Lower House.

Lawmaker spent 20 hours and 35 minutes over five days debating the two bills, with 107 of 130 deputies taking the podium, according to Rasid.

The report said that 79 per cent of the MPs who spoke rejected lifting subsidies and raising prices, while 75 per cent stressed the importance of supporting poverty pockets and finding solutions for unemployment. 

Some 49 per cent demanded the reduction of government expenditure; 35 per cent called for increasing the salaries of military personnel; and 20 per cent stressed the need to maintain medical exemptions.

During the five-day deliberations, 52 per cent of the deputies who took the podium spoke of means of curbing tax evasion, while 40 per cent focused on enhancing government agency oversight.

Rasid said that “only” 7 per cent of the MPs mentioned the report that was issued by the Audit Bureau on government oversight.

The demands presented by lawmakers totalled 958, the report said. 

Some 58 per cent of the demands were related to national policies and 42 per cent were concerned with services for the deputies’ districts.

Rasid also fact-checked the numbers mentioned by the deputies in their speeches, indicating that 24 per cent of the figures they cited were inaccurate.