Amman, Aug. 26 (Petra) - The Lower House of Parliament concluded its first extraordinary session of the 20th Parliament on Wednesday, marking the close of an intensive legislative cycle that spanned from July 12 to August 26, 2026. Operating under a Royal Decree issued to convene Parliament for a specific legislative agenda, the Chamber held 16 dedicated sittings, successfully debating and enacting six major draft laws covering local administration, higher education, real estate ownership, vocational governance, and institutional quality assurance.

The extraordinary session formally drew to a close following the publication of a Royal Decree on Tuesday ordering the prorogation of Parliament, effective Wednesday, August 26, 2026. This constitutional mechanism allowed the legislature to tackle urgent statutory reforms outside the ordinary session framework.

The session commenced on July 12 with the reading of the Royal convocation and accompanying government dispatches. In its opening sitting, the Lower House referred five priority bills to specialized parliamentary committees for rigorous examination, including the Local Administration Draft Law, the Amended Universities Draft Law, the Civil Consumer Corporation Law Repeal Bill, the Vocational Practice Regulation Draft Law, and the Quality Assurance and Accreditation Commission Draft Law. A sixth measure, the Amended Real Estate Ownership Draft Law, was subsequently advanced through the legal workflow to complete the comprehensive six-bill legislative package.

Enacted on July 19, 2026, the amended universities legislation introduced 12 substantive amendments aimed at modernizing university governance, including a key provision empowering public universities to allocate up to 1 percent of their operational budgets toward international marketing and promotional outreach to attract fee-paying expatriate and foreign students. On July 21, 2026, the Chamber approved the seven-article bill repealing the Civil Consumer Corporation Law, following its clearance by the Economy and Investment Committee. During the same sitting, MP Bakr Al-Kassasbeh was sworn into office in accordance with Article 80 of the Constitution and election laws, filling the vacant seat resulting from a definitive judicial ruling involving former MP Hassan Al-Riyati.

The Vocational Practice Regulation Bill navigated extensive committee scrutiny and floor debate before passing, establishing a robust regulatory framework for vocational and technical labor markets, governing professional practice licenses, training provider accreditation, and statutory skills testing. The bill returned to the Lower House following review by the Upper House, which proposed amendments to Articles 8 and 16 to grant established practitioners exemptions from initial testing under specific regulatory bylaws, recognize foreign professional certifications, and reduce administrative penalties for infractions. The Lower House concurred with the Upper House's amendments on August 19, finalizing the statute.

Spanning 37 detailed articles across three intensive sittings, the Amended Real Estate Ownership Draft Law constituted one of the session’s most heavily debated statutes. Key structural adjustments included expanding infrastructure definitions in expropriation provisions to formally encompass railway networks, transferring settlement order authorities from the Director of Lands and Survey to the Council of Ministers, setting ownership caps for non-Jordanians and corporate entities acquiring residential property at 10 dunums, and raising the statutory compensation margin for property expropriation from 10 percent to 20 percent above appraised value.

On August 11, 2026, the Lower House also approved the Quality Assurance and Accreditation Commission Draft Law, which codifies regulatory standards for educational institutions and explicitly classifies any facility administered by the Ministry of Education, other government directorates, or the Jordan Armed Forces as a public educational institution.

Accounting for the largest share of parliamentary debate during the final week of the session, the 70-article Local Administration Draft Law underwent exhaustive line-by-line review across multiple sittings. The legislation reaffirmed the mandatory appointment of a municipal executive director to head administrative operations as chief financial officer while strengthening the mayor's oversight regarding service delivery and delayed municipal projects.

It also reduced the property owner cost-sharing ratio for road paving, curbing, and retaining wall construction from 50 percent to 30 percent of abutting frontages, lowered objection fee thresholds from 20 percent to 10 percent of contested assessments, ratified the Administrative Committee’s recommendation capping municipal personnel salaries and allowances at 50 percent of total annual municipal budgets, and replaced broad governmental dissolution powers with tightly defined statutory conditions mandating the appointment of a temporary municipal committee pending new elections held within one year of dissolution.

With the final votes cast on the local administration and vocational practice bills on August 19, the Lower House of Parliament completed its constitutional mandate for the extraordinary session. The 16 sittings successfully resolved all items designated in the Royal Decree, setting a robust framework for administrative, economic, and educational development ahead of the upcoming ordinary session.

//Petra// AA

26/08/2026 10:44:48