Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - (Exclusive) - The Circassian Tribal Council decided on Wednesday to form a committee to discuss the new electoral law and the calls of a group of Circassians to boycott the upcoming parliamentary elections because the government did not allocate a Circassian parliamentary seat for the Third District in Amman.
During a meeting at the Circassian Association between the Circassian Tribal Council and a group of Circassians calling for boycotting the upcoming parliamentary elections, the Council listened to the opinions of those calling for a boycott and justifications for their demands. The Council decided to form the committee to discuss the issue and conduct the appropriate communications with government entities to look into government’s decision not to re-instate Circassian representation to the Third District.
The group calling for the boycott justified their demands noting the symbolic and historic Circassian presence in the area.
The Council decided to reconvene on Friday and hold a wider meeting with Circassian civil society organization to look into the appropriate steps in this regard.
Sources inside the Council doubted that the community would resort to boycotting the elections as a solution, noting that it would not allow any entity to take advantage of such circumstances to pass personal agendas and objectives that may cause divisions among the Circassian Jordanian community.
A member of the group calling for the boycott said that the matter "stops here," referring to the fact that the group laid the matter in the hands of the community elders, and noting that the message has been received by the community decision makers.
Participants in the meeting stressed the need to resort to democratic means and called for constructive dialogue to expose their voices and demands, stressing also on the need to maintain the “unique and respected image of the Circassian community in Jordan, well known for its commitment and loyalty to Jordan and the Hashemite leadership.”
The Circassian Tribal Council also met with a government official on Wednesday, a meeting that lasted well until mid night.
It is noted that a group of young Circassians had distributed a statement in the past several days calling for boycotting the upcoming parliamentary elections, in response to the government's lack of response to Circassian demands to re-instate Circassian parliamentary representation to the Third District in Amman.