Minister of Political Development, Engineer Mousa Maaitah stressed on the importance of the youth’s active involvement in the next parliamentary elections.
Maaitah said during a workshop titled “the Culture of Elections”, held by Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) in AL Qweismeh region , that the Government’s role is to ensure applying the laws, as it (the Government) wishes to have a parliament that reflects the citizens’ opinions and beliefs, and this can be realized by electing the parliament members properly. He also encouraged the youth to activate their participation in the elections and to vote for the best candidate.
Maaitah emphasized that the Government does not support specific candidates, and in this regard he said: “No one has green light from the Government”, “The backed candidates are those who get the highest advocacy and confidence from the citizens.
He clarified that no violations occurred in the process of election registrations, pointing out that there is no secrecy in the information about the candidates’ names when they vote for themselves at the official or subsidiary departments, and that interested people can check the names at first.
During the workshop, a discussion between the Minister and the young women and men tackled the new law of elections and the election process, as well as the Government’s interest in the youth participation in public life. The Minister also explained the law of elections, and responded to the attendees’ questions and queries.
The executive Director of culture at GAM, Samer Khair Ahmad, said that this workshop is one of a series of workshops that are to be held in the public cultural parks of GAM regarding the culture of election, in cooperation with the Ministry of Political Development and the Higher Council of Youth.
He referred to the preparation of “the Culture of Elections” manual which consists of the main subject matter of the training during the workshops at the 24 cultural parks of GAM. They (the workshops) are expected to embrace 1500 young women and men within 4 months of training.
Khair said: “We aim, through these workshops, at practicing elections as one of the most important aspects of involvement in public life, which reflects the strong bonds with the country and its causes; therefore, motivation to participate is required as a principle in itself, without any linkage with any election status, to be an augmenting element of solidifying the ties between the targeted youth and their country and society”.
It is worth noting that the book “Elections & Political Reform” by the writer Jamil Al Nimri, was adopted as a reference for the training workshops which were inaugurated by the Minister, Maaitah, on 8 July 2010.