AMMAN: Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Monday ended the current session of parliament, with experts saying the decision was not linked to recent clashes sparked by an MP.
A royal decree was issued, proroguing the non-ordinary session as of Thursday, June 10.
Clashes took place at the weekend between supporters of MP Osama Al-Ajarmeh and police in Amman’s Naour suburb.
Al-Ajarmeh was expelled from the lower house on Sunday after he was accused of igniting the riots.
Four police officers were wounded in the clashes.
Naour, a stronghold of the Ajarmeh tribe, was quiet on Monday, with no violence reported.
The lower house held a brief emergency session on Sunday during which a majority of MPs voted in favor of expelling Al-Ajarmeh.
The MP appeared in a number of recent videos insulting King Abdullah II, state institutions and threatening to establish a “radical Jordanian right wing” of tribes and ex-army figures to “purify Amman of the liberal elite” whom he accused of being behind the country’s woes.
Of the 130-member lower chamber, 108 MPs voted in favor of expelling Al-Ajarmeh.
Parliamentary experts said the royal decree to prorogue the 19th parliament was merely a procedural constitutional requirement that happened to coincide with the upheaval.
“Under the constitution, the parliament’s session should not last for more than six months,” Majed Al-Amir, a parliamentary journalist, said. He added that the legislature began the non-ordinary session on Dec. 10 so the six-month deadline fell on June 10.
The remarks were echoed by political commentator Khaled Qudah, who described the king’s decision to prorogue parliament as a “routine procedure and a constitutional requirement.”
