- Election Coverage
- November 21, 2007
- 3 minutes read
Gov’t Supporters Sweep Jordanian Parliamentary Elections
Initial results of the Jordanian parliamentary elections that took place on Tuesday showed that supporters of the government swept the elections, while Jordan”s Muslim Brotherhood declared that many violations marred these elections .
These results that gathered from polling stations pointed on Tuesday evening that the regime”s supporters from Jordanian clans and independent candidates in addition to the win of no less than five Islamic candidates out of the 22 candidates fielded by the Islamic movement .
Also, outgoing House speaker Abdul Hadi Al Magali and former prime minister Abdul Raouf Al Rouabda won seats .
The chairman of the election commission for the second constituency, Saleh Al-Qudah, declared in the southern Jordanian governorate of Madaba that the elections witnessed also the win of the first women in competitive elections, dentist Falak Al Gamani who garnered 3301 votes.
According to the political sources, the Islamists are expected to garner no less than 17 seats in the 110-seat House of Representatives.
Ahead of announcing the official results of the elections, the Muslim Brotherhood group in Jordan declared that violations and rigging were committed in the elections .
Gamil Abu Bakr, the media spokesman of the Islamic movement, said that media figures and journalists watched, and they are witnesses on, many violations that have been caught on mobile cameras as documentations.
Vote-buying was committed in public without any objection from government that did nothing to prevent these violations
We are fully convinced that most of our candidates were frontrunners but their results may be rigged to the benefit of government leaning candidates, said the Islamic spokesman.
“Not objecting to these exercises confirms that there is a collaboration to reach an already picked list of MPs”
For his part, Hikmat Al Rawashda, the media spokesman of the Supreme Elections Committee in the Islamic Action Front Party (IAF), confirmed that plainclothes policemen cast their votes in Aqaba and government cars carrying government plate numbers took part in carrying voters in Aqaba and Amman”.
He said also that the first constituency in Al-Zarqa witnessed stuffing ballot papers in two boxes and that the movement”s candidate submitted a complaint against this.
According to Jordanian Interior Minister, Eid Al Fayez, the turnout reached 55 % of all illegible voters.
Officials said that the results of the election on which 885 candidates are competing to win 110 seats will be declared on Wednesday morning.