Khaberni - The Hayat Center - Rasad released its annual report on the performance of the twentieth House of Representatives in its first year, during the period from November 18, 2024, to September 15, 2025, through a developed methodology that includes quality work instead of relying solely on quantitative indicators.
At the level of general outcomes, the report outputs showed that the House of Representatives held its first regular session during the first year without holding any special session, where it was noted that it held 22 sessions over 37 workdays, including morning and evening workdays, divided into 25 legislative days, 11 oversight days, and one day that was both legislative and oversight.
On the legislative performance front, 15 legislations were enacted during the first year in addition to discussing two reports from the Audit Bureau for the years 2022 and 2023, and the Council presented 28 proposed laws forwarded to seven permanent committees.
The report results indicated that the level of parliamentary activity escalated compared to the eighteenth and nineteenth councils, as the report showed an increase in the percentage of deputies who submitted questions from 47% in the first year of the eighteenth council to 56% in the first year of the nineteenth to 78% in the current council, and the number of proposed laws more than tripled compared to the first years in the previous parliaments.
Rasad indicates that this improvement reflects relative vitality in the parliamentary scene, but it still needs institutional accumulation to ensure its sustainability.
Rasad's report on the performance of the twentieth House of Representatives noted that the council registered notable oversight activity in its first year, as deputies presented 1125 parliamentary questions, submitted by about 78% of council members, reflecting a broad use of oversight tools, and the government responded to 89% of the parliamentary questions during the first year.
According to the report, 21 female parliamentarians presented 208 parliamentary questions, and by analyzing the type of questions, the methodology showed that only 2.3% of the questions were of a qualitative nature and had a precise national or legal character, while the percentage of advanced questions was 66.04%, the percentage of accepted questions was 16.9%, and the formal questions were 14.76%, indicating that the numerical abundance did not always translate into quality content, as a wide segment of the questions remained of a service or local nature.
In the same context, the report shows that only 5% of the total questions were actually discussed under the dome, while written responses were sufficient in most cases.
Regarding interrogations, only 24 interrogations were presented during the first year by 14 deputies (10 deputies and 4 deputy ladies), twelve of them were answered without any being discussed in the general sessions. As for proposals by desire, there were 46 proposals submitted by 16 deputies, forwarded to 13 permanent committees, a high number compared to previous councils where the number of proposals by desire in the first year of the nineteenth parliament did not exceed two, while deputies of the eighteenth parliament did not present any proposal by desire in their first year.
On the level of memoranda, the council presented 70 memoranda during its first year, 36 during the regular first session and 34 after the end of the regular first session, and with the distribution of memoranda according to their sponsors, 9 parliamentary committees presented 27 memoranda, the administrative committee presented 8 memoranda followed by education and training with 7 memoranda, then economy and investment committee with 4 memoranda, while the health and environment and agriculture and water committees presented two memoranda each.
On the level of parliamentary blocs, two blocs submitted 14 memoranda, where the Azm block submitted 9 memoranda, while the Meethaq bloc presented 5 memoranda, and 29 memoranda were marked by individual deputies totaling 22 deputies. Regarding the commitment of parliamentarians to attend parliamentary sessions, the average absence was 12 parliamentarians per session.
Rasad sees that the twentieth parliament witnessed quantitative oversight activity, but it still lacks institutional accumulation in monitoring and results, as Rasad emphasized the need to transition from numerical questions to qualitative questions and to develop mechanisms for submitting questions to prevent repetition and to set up a tool that allows each bloc to track its members' questions.
The report concludes that the real challenge lies in transforming the numerical abundance into tangible political impact, making the parliamentary question a powerful tool of pressure that changes government behavior rather than just a formal procedure to record stances.
This report is the first of its kind in Jordan that measures the performance of deputies according to criteria of "oversight depth" and "legislative and political impact", based on a developmental model that aligns with the standards of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Rasad clarified that the new methodology was introduced to meet the requirements of political modernization and to increase transparency in the council's work, as parliamentary oversight questions were categorized into four groups (formal, acceptable, advanced, qualitative) based on oversight depth and impact.
