2013
Jordan Parliamentary Elections
37
election polling, respondents ranked the IEC lowest on the results announcement process, lagging
behind its performance in voting and counting
While the IEC’s conduct in the post-election period highlighted problems, a positive change in the
election law was that courts, not the parliament, handled adjudication of election result complaints.
Candidates were given 15 days after Election Day to file appeals. The Court of Appeals then had 30
days to provide a legal decision that was considered to be final. Overall, 27 official appeals were
filed, 20 in Amman and seven in Irbid, and the court returned decisions within the 30 day window.
In their complaints to the courts, candidates typically requested that results be abolished and
elections held again in their respective districts because of procedural errors or alleged interference
of candidate supporters at polling centers.
Election Results
If the 2013 elections were designed to break new ground in Jordan, they made little progress. Out
of 150 parliamentarians, nearly 40 percent were from previous parliaments. While 91 new
candidates were elected, many of them hailed from tribal families that regularly dominate electoral
politics. With the SNTV system accounting for more than 80 percent of seats, candidates with
strong tribal affiliations accounted for more than one-third of the new parliament. IRI’s observer
team in Ma’an summed it up best when it reported on Election Day, “There is low optimism that
anything can change through the ballot. The IEC is doing a good job, and the processes are
different, but the outcome won’t necessarily be better.” When asked in IRI’s post-election poll if
there was one or more parliamentarians who will represent your needs and concerns in the new
parliament, three out of five voters said there was not
Given that they comprise 50 percent or more of the population, a positive development was that the
percentage of candidates of Palestinian descent who won seats increased in the election. In 2010,
Palestinian Jordanians won only 19 seats, making up about 15 percent of the parliament, while in
2013 they won 30 seats, giving them 20 percent of total seats. Palestinian Jordanians won nine
national list seats. More than half of the seats for Palestinian Jordanian representatives came from
Amman and Zarqa, urban areas heavily populated by Jordanians of Palestinian origin. The most
prominent candidate was Khalil Attiyah, from Amman’s first district, who won close to 20,000
votes, the highest number of any candidate in the Kingdom. In total, female candidates won 18
seats, three more than the quota requirement, with two women winning outright in their districts
and one winning a seat as the head of a national list.
Twenty-two lists won seats, but none gained more than three seats in total, thus complicating the
King’s plan for parliamentary blocs to be the main driver behind the selection of a new prime
minister and government. The winning list,
Al Wasat,
or Islamic Centrist Party List, won nine
percent of the vote and three seats, but this, even with the addition of seats won in the districts, was
hardly enough for the party to claim a mandate, or command a seat at the table, to form the
government. As soon as elections were finished, lists and candidates began holding meetings to
create parliamentary blocs, but it was clear from the blocs’ instability under the strain of politics that
these blocs were just post-election creations, with little to bind them together for substantive work
43
International Republican Institute Poll.
Jordan Post-Election Public Opinion Survey
. 4-7 March 2013. p. 12-14.
44
Ibid. p. 16.
