Senate insists on women’s quota in decentralisation law

AMMAN — The Senate’s legal and administrative committees insisted on Wednesday on the senators’ amendments to the 2015 decentralisation law under which 10 per cent of the elected governorate council seats would be allocated for women.

The Senate is scheduled to convene on Thursday to discuss the law which was twice referred from the Lower House. Earlier this week, MPs rejected the Senate’s amendments to the 2015 decentralisation bill, insisting on a law free of a women’s quota in local governing bodies.

If the Senate insists on its amendments for the second time, then constitutionally, the two Houses of Parliament have to meet in a joint session to resolve the matter in dispute by a two-thirds vote.