Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The Lower House of Parliament endorsed during Wednesday's session which was held to discuss the 2016 Draft Amendments to the Constitution, Article 40 of the Constitution. The article was approved by 123 MPs out of 142 who attended the session that was chaired by its speaker Atef Tarawneh and attended by Cabinet members ministers.

The House added another paragraph to Article 40 of the constitution under which the King shall exercise the powers vested in him by Royal Decree without the signature of the prime minister and concerned ministers, to appoint the Crown Prince, the Regent, Senate president and members, and members of the Constitutional Court, president of the Higher Judicial Council, the army’s Joint Chiefs-of-Staff and the General Intelligence Department and Gendarmerie Department directors." The amendments, the third since the approval of the Jordanian Constitution in 1952, aim to strengthen the principle of separation of powers, boost the independence of Constitutional Court and Judiciary Authority and enhance the neutrality of the gendarmerie in politics.