The King to open the 3rd ordinary session of Parliament with the Speech from the Throne.. Monday

Sources in the Senate confirm that Senator Dr. Abdullah Ensour will be elected as First Deputy Speaker, and Senator Dr. Hani Mulki as Second Deputy Speaker.

The Senate will also elect a committee to draft the response to the Speech from the Throne.

The House of Representatives will hold its first session immediately after the Senate session, chaired by the most senior member if he is not a candidate for the presidency.

Information indicates that MP Musa Al-Wahsh from the National Party bloc will chair the opening session, as the most senior member in the House is Majhem Al-Sqour, who has announced his candidacy for the presidency of the House of Representatives, and Al-Wahsh follows Al-Sqour in seniority.

In its first session, the House of Representatives will elect the Speaker of the House and the members of the Permanent Bureau.

Four candidates are competing for the presidency of the House of Representatives to date: MP Dr. Ibrahim Al-Tarawneh, candidate of the Mithaq Party bloc; MP Majhem Al-Sqour from the Mithaq bloc; MP Dr. Mustafa Al-Khasawneh, candidate of the Mubadara Party bloc; and MP Dr. Suleiman Al-Zaben, candidate of the Centrist and Reformist Parties bloc.

The House of Representatives is witnessing meetings between representatives of parliamentary blocs to agree on a single candidate for the presidency of the House, to be the candidate of the four parliamentary blocs: Mithaq, Mubadara, Centrist and Reformist Parties, and the Azm bloc.

Parliamentary sources said that the "Mithaq, Mubadara, Azm, and Centrist and Reformist Parties" blocs prefer to move towards consensus on choosing one figure from among the candidates for the presidency of the House of Representatives to be a consensus candidate for these blocs, which have a total of 100 members out of the 138 total members of the House of Representatives.

The sources said that after agreeing on the figure for the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the four blocs will discuss the possibility of reaching a consensus on the positions of the First Deputy Speaker and the Second Deputy Speaker.

Parliamentary sources confirm that the positions of the Permanent Bureau, whether the First Deputy Speaker, the Second Deputy, or the Assistants, are also linked to the understandings between the blocs regarding the position of the Speaker.

The sources indicated that in the event of a lack of consensus between the parliamentary blocs on the Speaker's figure, matters will head towards electing the Speaker via the ballot box, and thus the choice of the Speaker in the third ordinary session would be by voting, unlike what the MPs did in the first and second ordinary sessions by choosing the Speaker by acclamation.

His Majesty King Abdullah II had issued a Royal Decree calling Parliament to convene for its third ordinary session on the second of next month.

Article (78) of the Constitution states: "The King shall call the Parliament to meet in its ordinary session on the first day of October of each year, and if that day is an official holiday, then on the first day following it that is not an official holiday, provided that the King may, by a Royal Decree published in the Official Gazette, postpone the meeting of Parliament to a date specified in the Royal Decree, provided that the postponement period does not exceed two months."

The House of Representatives elects its Speaker at the beginning of each ordinary session, according to Article (69) of the Constitution, which states: "The House of Representatives shall elect its Speaker at the beginning of the ordinary session for a period of one solar year, and he may be re-elected."