Thousands of Jordanians across the Arab Kingdom demonstrated Friday, demanding the dissolution of the Lower House, which cleared Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit from a suspected corruption case.
The demonstrators, who accused the Lower House of treason by not voting for a decision to accuse Bakhit of involvement in the suspected corruption case dubbed the "casino file", said the government should also be sacked.
"People want the government down. People want the lower house," chanted thousands of demonstrators in downtown Amman Friday.
The demonstrators also accused the government of lack of seriousness to embark on reforms and said the lower house had lost its legitimacy.
Similar protests took place Friday in different Jordanian governorates, including Tafileh, Karak, Maan and Irbid.
Three Jordanian MPs on Wednesday submitted their resignations on the backdrop of a decision by lower house not to impeach Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit in a suspected corruption file dubbed the " casino case."
On Monday, a total of 86 MPs voted for a decision to accuse Dabbas, a matter that allows for the formation of a nine-member high tribunal to rule on the case.
Although Jordan's Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit was on the top of officials suspected for being involved in the case, only 50 MPs voted for the decision to accuse the premier, while 53 voted against the decision. Ten MPs abstained from voting and six were absent.
Bakhit first served as prime minister from 2005 to 2007, when his government and British company Oasis Holding Investment Ltd. signed the casino agreement, under which the Jordanian government tasked the London-based investor to create a casino on the shores of the Dead Sea.
One week after endorsing the agreement, however, the officials in charge decided to hold the deal until further notice. The government of former Jordanian Prime Minister Nader Dahabi, who served from 2007 to 2009, renegotiated the deal to avoid paying 1. 4 billion U.S. dollars in fines for annulling the agreement.
Editor: Mu Xuequan
English.news.cn 2011-07-02 02:46:05 FeedbackPrintRSS
AMMAN, July 1 (Xinhua)
No comments:
Post a Comment