Jordan Times
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Municipal Elections Today in Jordan
Jordanians head to the polls today to elect mayors and council members for 94 municipal councils around the Kingdom.
More than 1.9 million are eligible to elect their representatives from a total of 2,706 candidates, including 360 women.
Mayoral hopefuls total 745, including six women.
Polling booths are to open today at 7:00am for 10 hours. If the voter turnout is less than 51 per cent, they will remain
open for another four hours.
The centres will open for an additional day tomorrow if the voter turnout does not meet the minimum requirement of 51 per
cent after these 14 hours. After second day of polling, the government will count the votes, regardless of the turnout
percentage.
Registered voters can log on to (www.moma.gov.jo) and use their national identity number to track down their polling
stations and ballot box numbers.
The government has launched a vigorous campaign to encourage citizens’ participation in the polls, and has thus declared
voting day a public holiday. The campaign included advertisements in newspapers as well as radio and television stations,
in addition to SMSs encouraging people to select the most capable to represent them.
Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit yesterday called on NGO leaders to help bring more people to the voting centres.
During a meeting with leaders of civil society organisations, he renewed his government’s promise of free and fair elections.
Previous elections show that voters’ turnout in urban areas was disappointing, compared to rural areas, where 60 per cent
cast their votes.
Police and thousands of officials will be supervising the process, which is the first to be conducted after amendments were
made to the law.
Women are guaranteed to take a fifth of the total municipal council seats, thanks to the formula of a 20 per cent quota,
which guarantees a minimum of 220 out of the 965 seats for women.
Under the newly implemented Municipalities Law, the age of eligible voters has been reduced from 19 to 18 to expand the
voter base.
Meanwhile, towns and villages in the past few days turned into a beehive, bustling with candidates and their aides trying
to sway voters to choose them.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, claimed there are thousands of violations
committed under the watchful eye of the government.
Zaki Bani Rsheid, the party’s secretary general, said in a press conference Monday that there have been “numerous violations”
which could affect the outcome of the polls.
“Some voters registered in more than one polling station at the same municipality. Others registered to vote in more than
one municipality,” Bani Rsheid charged.
He also pointed out to other alleged methods of “cheating” such as spelling the same name in different ways, tampering with
the national identity number or registering citizens aged below 18.
Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs Nader Thuheirat last week told reporters that accusations of transferring votes
from one municipality to another was almost impossible to achieve due to restrictions imposed by the government.