AMMAN — The Cabinet, during a session chaired by Prime Minister Jafar Hassan on Wednesday, approved the draft amended law for the Independent Election Commission (IEC) for 2026.

 

The draft law addresses the need to update statutory provisions in line with legislative developments under the political modernisation track, thereby enhancing the IEC’s capacity to exercise its constitutional and legal mandates efficiently and effectively.

 

Under the amendments, IEC employees are prohibited from joining political parties throughout their tenure to ensure strict neutrality, as the IEC serves as the regulatory authority supervising party registration and affairs, according to a Prime Ministry statement.

 

Any IEC employee seeking to be a candidate in elections managed or supervised by the commission must take unpaid leave 90 days prior to the poll, and will be deemed to have resigned by operation of law if victorious.

 

The amendments also update the commission's duties to align with the Political Parties Law, incorporate digital campaign tools into the regulatory oversight framework to monitor compliance, and align HR provisions with the public sector human resources management bylaw.

 

The Cabinet also approved the validating reasons for a draft amended Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Law for 2026.

 

The draft law aims to further develop the national framework against financial crimes in line with international best practices.

 

It seeks to keep pace with evolving international standards regarding anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing, and countering the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, while targeting organised and cross-border crime, corruption-related offences, drug trafficking, fraud, and tax evasion.

 

As part of measures to advance the National Water Carrier Project, the Cabinet approved a decision by the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) Board of Commissioners granting the project a package of necessary facilities and exemptions.

 

The project, the first of its kind in the Kingdom, aims to desalinate 300 million cubic metres of seawater annually and transport it via a 450-kilometre pipeline network to cover nearly 40 per cent of the Kingdom's drinking water needs.

 

The annual supply generated will match the total capacity of all dams across the Kingdom and nearly triple the output of the Disi project, raising the annual per capita water share from 60 to 110 cubic metres and increasing supply days from one to three per week across all governorates.

 

Within the framework of the strategic partnership between Jordan and the European Union, the Cabinet approved a 110 million euro grant agreement funded by the EU to support economic and social modernisation programs through the general budget.

 

The Cabinet also approved the validating reasons for a draft amended bylaw on connecting renewable energy facilities to the electrical grid and exempting renewable energy sources and energy efficiency systems for 2026.

 

The draft bylaw grants citizens and economic sectors greater flexibility in self-generation, encourages electricity storage, and rationalises consumption.

 

"This comes as the Kingdom targets increasing the share of renewable energy in electricity generation to 40 per cent by 2035 under the 2025–2035 energy strategy, up from its current contribution of 27 per cent," the statment said

 

To rationalise fuel consumption for government vehicles and machinery, the Cabinet approved measures establishing electronic data links to implement Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) fueling technology.

 

This automated procedure links fuel dispensing directly to the official vehicle, logging quantities and transaction data without human intervention to eliminate waste and prevent misuse across all ministries, public departments, municipalities, the Greater Amman Municipality, and fully state-owned companies.

 

To reinforce the strategic reserve of wheat and barley, the Cabinet approved increasing financial allocations for purchasing local grain crops for the 2025/2026 agricultural season from JD45 million to JD59 million. This adjustment raises local purchase quantities from farmers from 110,000 tonnes to 147,000 tonnes.

 

The Cabinet also endorsed extending the free storage period for national exports at the Aqaba Container Terminal from 7 to 14 days for a six-month period.

 

It also reduced the destruction fee for goods from JD450 per tonne to JD50 per tonne for a period of three months, subject to specified Ministry of Finance conditions.

 

These decisions build on earlier measures that reduced container dwell times for transit cargo from 15 days to 12 days, reduced dwell times for local imports to 8 days, and increased daily container output capacity at port gates from 900 to 1,200 containers.