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Ammon News - By Mohammed al-Saleh

AMMONNEWS - In the first day of registration for candidacy to run for the upcoming parliamentary elections, men headed the first three positions on the national lists competing for 27 seats allocated for the national level in the upcoming parliament.

Female candidates, observers noticed, were relegated to positions of fifth or lower on the majority of national lists that registered so far, despite calls by women rights and empowerment organizations for women's active participation in the elections in leading positions.

On this observation, columnist Fahed Khitan commented that "the absence of women in leading positions of national lists is not strange, as males [leading] is the prevailing culture," adding in statements to Ammon News that women have not been given the position they politically deserve.

Khitan called for amending the electoral law in the future in a manner to oblige national lists of including women in leading positions (the first three) on national lists.

Khitan noted that relegating women to marginal positions in the national lists is because of "society's backward view toward women," stressing that the appointment of women in positions does not change much in women's political empowerment.

"True political progress and empowerment of women is for women to reach positions through elections," Khitan added.

On her part, President of the Women Union Nuha Maaytah stressed that the absence of legal conditions for women participation in leading positions on national lists have weakened women's participation in general.

Maaytah criticized the marginalization of women in legislature in regards to national lists, in addition to marginalization of women in society, noting that women partaking in the candidacy for elections as part of national lists are doing so as a first experience.

"Disputes erupted between men themselves competing on the leading positions of national lists, hence, it is not surprising that women are absent from leading positions when society still has a marginal view of women's political role," Maaytah added.