Ammon News - By Heba Al Azhari

AMMONNEWS - The Ministry of Municipalities decided to return to the municipalities' voting districting that was adopted in the 2007 municipal elections and will not separate or any new districts for the upcoming municipal elections expected to be held in the first half of 2012.

A government source told Ammon News that the Ministry of Municipalities also decided to enforce on larger municipalities allocation of secondary budgets for all districts that fall under their jurisdiction, to ensure that services and funds reach all areas of the kingdom and improve services and infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the Ministry also decided to amend the voting system that will be adopted for the elections, which will be now based on each voter having voting ballots based on the numbers of seats in the Municipal Council, as apposed to the 2007 municipal elections, which used the one-person, one-vote system.

Minister of Municipalities Maher Abu Samen halted all measures for the parliamentary elections last week after ruling them in violation of municial laws, and blasted all previous decisions made by ex-Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit as based on "personal opinions without consideration for current laws."

Various parts of the Kingdom had faced large protests in the past few months with local residents calling for separating from municipalities and demanding the government to instate new municipalities.

Several protests witnessed violence, riots, blocking main roads, and burning and vandalism of public property before the new government of Prime Minister Awn Khasawneh decided to delay the Municipal elections until 2012.