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Ammon News - AMMAN (Petra) Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour reiterated on Tuesday that upcoming legislative elections will be fair, "clean" and free of any direct or indirect interference by the government and its agencies.

He said the Independent Elections Commission will be in full charge of administering and supervising the Jan. 23 parliamentary elections, but the government will be a facilitator and supporter of the electoral body to achieve the aspired goal.

"There will be no positive or negative intervention by us whatsoever, be it material, moral or operational. It is up to the voter to decide. The elections will be fair. This is not a favour but an obligation and commitment," he told chief editors and columnists of local daily newspapers.

The prime minister said the post-election period would mark the end of an era when election integrity had been under questioning.

Lashing out at parties that will boycott the polls, Ensour said: "In democracies, there is no such a thing called boycott because the one who does so, would boycott the only path at hand to arrive at democracy." Stressing that national opposition is essential to democracy, but not an adversary of the state, he said the right to oppose should not be compromised, but should be expressed in elections as well, by casting a white paper or invalid ballot.

Asked about the shape of the next House of Deputies, Ensour said the chamber's image depends on several factors, chief among which is integrity, "not just the credentials and records of elected persons".

He said that from day one, the new parliament's and government's first order of business is to enforce the separation of authorities as a constitutional provision, adding: "It is no longer possible or acceptable that the House interferes in government functions or pressures it over appointments, and the government also has no right to interfere in the legislature but within the framework of the constitution and the law." Commenting on a panel he named yesterday upon royal directives to review privatization policies since 1989, the premier said the Privatization Evaluation Committee would draw up a report on privatization reasons and soundness as an economic measure adopted by previous governments.

Ensour said the panel, comprising neutral technocrats, would assess various economic aspects of privatization, mainly levels of administrative and financial improvement and their impact on growth and the quality of services in addition to revealing where the revenues of privatized institutions had ended up.

Referring to a recently launched national campaign to provide 18,000 jobs to Jordanian men and women in their respective areas, the prime minister said if the government exploited the largest possible number of available job opportunities it would be a big achievement in addressing unemployment among youth.