The Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan conducted a poll of opinion leaders in Jordan to identify their views regarding the performance of the current Lower House since its election in November 2007. This project is part of a series of polls the Center is conducting to evaluate the performance of the current Lower House. The Center published a poll previously regarding the opinions of the general public on the same topic.
This poll was conducted between March 31 and April 4, 2009. The size of the complete public opinion leaders’ sample was 623 respondents, originally 700, with 77 individuals refusing to participate. The sample was distributed among the categories of public opinion leaders as shown in Table 1.
This report includes five main sections: the first addresses the Jordanian public opinion leaders sample’s evaluation of the performance of the current Lower House. This section includes data on the extent of opinion leaders’ satisfaction with and evaluation of the Lower House in carrying out its fundamental constitutional duties: its monitoring role, questioning role and its control of public spending. In addition, this section presents the evaluation of the Lower House’s performance regarding certain basic issues. The second section aims to identify opinion leaders’ evaluations of the extent of the current Lower House’s independence and the main determinants of MP voting during the current term. The third section identifies the extent to which public opinion leaders followed the activities of the current Lower House, and their evaluation of the extent to which MPs communicated with citizens. The fourth section addresses respondents’ evaluation of the women’s quota system that was applied for the second time in the process of electing the current Lower House. The fifth and final section presents the trends in opinion leaders’ assessments regarding the privileges normally accorded to the Lower House.