Khaled Yacoub Oweis
The National / September 10, 2024
King Abdullah, who holds much of the power in the kingdom, envisions party-based legislature as part of wider reforms.
Voting began in Jordan’s parliamentary elections on Tuesday amid rising tension with Israel over the Gaza war and long-running pressures on its economy.
The legislature has limited sway in the kingdom, where King Abdullah holds significant power. But the monarch initiated an overhaul of election laws last year, enabling more parties to enter Parliament by promoting national competition rather than local.
Most of the 30 licensed parties participating in the election are pro-government, while the opposition comprises a dozen MPs in the current 130-member Parliament. Polling stations close at 7pm.
Turnout was nearly 30 per cent in the previous parliamentary vote in 2020, compared with 36 per cent in 2016.
Throughout the history of Jordan, the legislature has been dominated by members of tribes that form a bedrock of support for the monarchy and underpin the security forces and the public sector.
Mousa al-Mayata, head of the Independent Elections Commission, said on the eve of the election that the process was a vital part of wider reforms initiated by the king and aimed at streamlining bureaucracy and modernizing the $50 billion economy.
“We call on citizens to effectively participate in the poll,” he said.
Post-election, Parliament will consist of 138 seats under a new system aimed at boosting party representation. This system will test how well political groups in Jordan can secure seats, potentially tapping into public anger towards Israel.
Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1994, founded in part on bilateral security co-operation. The treaty resulted in Jordan becoming a main recipient of US aid and led to a strengthened defence pact with Washington, as well as commercial dealings with Israel.
On Sunday, a lorry driver from Jordan shot dead three Israelis at the Allenby Bridge border crossing into the occupied West Bank, prompting Israeli authorities to close all three land entry points from the kingdom.
The new system allocates 41 seats as a single, cross-country district but still limits the rise of large parties by giving small groups a bigger influence. The remaining 97 seats are mostly reserved for tribal regions with disproportionally large representation, compared with the kingdom’s main cities, where a large proportion of the population are descendants of Palestinian refugees.
Amman, home to 45 per cent of Jordan’s 11 million people, holds only 14 per cent of parliamentary seats. Zarqa, with a population of 2 million, is allocated 10 seats, slightly more than the eight seats given to the central governorate of Karak, which has only 375,000 inhabitants.
Most parties have no manifesto and instead rely on slogans such as “Strong Jordan” or “We will defend the workers”.
Campaigning, however, has centred on clan solidarity and money.
Rafe Darwish, a farmer in the central Ghor region in the Jordan valley, said he had been approached by representatives of many candidates in the district with offers of fertilizer and seeds.
“I will not see their faces [again] until the next elections,” he said.
In the central city of Jerash, a pastry maker struggled to keep up with the surge in orders from candidates distributing kunafe in large quantities to win over voters. This demand extended the usual 15-minute wait for the standard 2kg to three hours.
“Priority has been the large orders, our vans are working non-stop,” he explained, saying hundreds of cheese and ghee pastry dishes were leaving the business daily.
A farmer in Jerash said he had received numerous offers to help with his children’s education.
The official unemployment figure in the kingdom is 22 per cent. The International Monetary Fund expects the economy, which has been stagnant for more than a decade, to grow by 2.4 per cent this year, compared to 2.6 per cent last year.
Jordanian authorities cut subsidies on municipal water last year, following sharp rises in electricity prices the year before, to help contain public debt. A World Bank forecast expects gross government debt to reach 118 per cent of GDP this year, up from 116 per cent in 2023.
Khaled Yacoub Oweis – Jordan Correspondent, Amman
