Jordan Times
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Over 1,000 register to run for Parliament
By Mohammad Ben Hussein
AMMAN - The election season picked up momentum as registration for would-be
candidates closed yesterday, with official figures showing that some 1,110
applicants will be vying for the 110 Lower House seats.
The election committee in Amman rejected two applications including that of
Toujan Faisal, Jordan’s first woman MP.
According to Amman Governor Saad Manasir, who heads the elections committee,
Faisal was ineligible because she has a conviction and did not receive a general
pardon, as stipulated by the Elections Law.
But Faisal, known for her outspoken and stinging criticism of government
policies, believes she was “targeted to be silenced.”
“I was expecting this ruling because the government does not have the intention
to allow me to run,” said Faisal, arguing that “a number of temporary laws were
tailored especially for me in order to bar me from Parliament.”
She was referring to the temporary press and publications law - under which she
was sentenced to one year and eight months in prison - as well as temporary
state security and elections laws.
Faisal said she will appeal the decision in the Court of First Instance.
Faisal became an MP in 1993 after winning the Circassian seat in Amman’s Third
District, after which she experienced a series of run-ins with the government.
In 2002, she was tried on four counts of seditious libel.
The charges included disseminating information abroad and in Jordan, undermining
the reputation of the state and state officials, defaming the judiciary and
offending religious sentiment.
The second application rejected by the authorities yesterday was that of Khalid
Hweitat, “because he is from the Southern Badia District and wanted to run in
Amman”.
Figures also showed that 199 submitted applications in Amman including 29 women,
to compete for the capital’s 23 seats.
In Amman’s First District, the number of applicants totalled 24 men and two
women, in the Second District, 23 men and four women, in the third, 29 men and
four women, in the fourth, 30 men and 2 women, in the fifth, 26 men and 8 women,
in the sixth, 14 men and one woman, as well as 11 for the Circassian seat, one
Chechen and five Christians.
Those aged between 50 and 60 accounted for nearly 36 per cent of applicants
while those aged between 30 and 35 constituted 12 per cent.
In Zarqa, the second most populated city in the Kingdom, the number of
applicants amounted to 86, including 31 vying for the First District’s four
seats, and 27 competing for the Second District’s three seats, including one
woman. Seven will compete for the one seat in the Third District and 21 for the
city’s Fourth District, which has two seats.
In Irbid, at least 216 applied to run in the November polls, including 51 women,
for the governorate’s 16 seats.
In the Balqa District, some 79 candidates registered including 17 women, all
competing for 10 seats, including two allocated for Christians.
Official figures also showed that 61 aspiring candidates applied in Maan, 49 in
Jerash and 116 in Karak.
The elections for the 15th Parliament will be held in accordance with the
Elections Law, which has seen no amendments despite years of nationwide
dialogue. Critics have called for an alternative to the one-person, one-vote
system, while women activists have, in vain, asked the government to double the
six-seat women quota in the 110-member Lower House.