Jordanians elected Tuesday 130 new representatives, 100 of whom will sit for the first time, amid the absence of the most prominent lawmakers and a decline in the number of influential figures.
A number of former prominent lawmakers from the Islamic Action Front and Reform Bloc and Together List (Maan) lost the elections, as well as a number of tribal candidates.
The results, which were not officially announced, represented a partisan setback as a limited number of their candidates managed to be elected.
The rate of partisan deputies dropped to 16 percent of the new parliament, after registering about 26 percent in previous elections. Some 20 retired military personnel won the polls, constituting 15 percent of the new seats.
The Islah bloc was dealt a painful blow after it lost seats in constituencies that have long been considered strongholds for the Islamists. Islah represents the Islamic Action Front, which is affiliated with the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
The bloc had nominated 41 of its members on a coalition list of 80 candidates, 10 of whom were elected.
While the Islamic Center party had 20 candidates, predictions favored only five of them winning, as the nationalist and leftist parties had filed 48 candidacies combined, none of whom won.
Preliminary results showed that female representation was limited to the 15 seats allocated within the quota system, knowing that there were 20 seats in the previous council.
A number of violations and financial irregularities emerged during the elections, such as vote buying, or what is referred to as “black money.” Many of the cases were documented and referred to the judiciary.
The National Center for Human Rights, an independent national institution, documented a number of violations during the electoral process, namely buying votes in Ar-Ramtha, Amman and Madaba.
Rased Center, which monitored the elections and its results, recorded 863 violations and incidents during the polls.
The Independent Election Commission (IEC) delayed announcing the final results after riots broke out in Amman’s 5th district and Irbid.
Initially, IEC President Khaled Kalaldeh announced that the results would be declared on Wednesday evening. However, the commission postponed the press conference until further notice.
There was a total of 397 male and female candidates from 41 out of the 48 parties licensed in the country, representing 23 percent of the 1,674 candidates, all of whom being distributed on 294 lists.
The final number of voters stood at 1,386,749, or 29.9 percent out of around 4.6 million eligible voters.
The elections were held amid the spread of the coronavirus, and fears over its impact on voter turnout.
The authorities had announced a five-day 24-hour nationwide lockdown starting 10 pm on Tuesday, to prevent gatherings or possible protests after the results were announced, which could cause an increase in infection cases.
