2013
Jordan Parliamentary Elections
45
voter registration campaign, carried out from August to October in accordance with the new law
and supervised by the IEC, was a vote of confidence for the IEC, with 2.28 million Jordanians
registering. Much now will hinge on electoral preparation and turnout. Ultimately, the success of
the IEC in carrying out its first election will depend in large part upon how determined the
Government of Jordan is to prevent interference in the IEC’s work and in the election process in
general.
Assessment Team Findings
IRI’s assessment team, which was in Jordan from October 17-21, 2012, found significant support
for the way the IEC is handling the dual-track task of building up its own organization while
conducting all aspects of electoral preparation. In meetings with civil society organizations and
political parties, team members were told that the IEC is committed to transparency and that IEC
staff, starting with the chairman, have been open and accessible.
The most often cited criticism of the IEC was how the institution handled issues of group
registration. Specifically, the team heard several complaints about collective registration, which
manifests in several ways. For example, the team heard numerous accounts of family members
registering members of his or her family, a process that, while legal under Jordanian law, could easily
lend itself to fraud or to individuals being registered against their will. They also heard allegations
that candidates, through proxies, registered eligible voters in their community, and are holding the
voter cards of individuals to use as leverage, either by paying voters to vote a certain way or
destroying registration cards in the event the voter does not agree to support a specific candidate(s).
Although the IEC has to date earned credibility, the assessment team found that there is still
concern over how the IEC relates to other state authorities, such as the police, judiciary or municipal
authorities, and the IEC’s inability to press for real action to resolve issues. The team was informed
that there is a disinclination for these other state bodies to cooperate with the IEC because their
sphere of influence is being reduced.
Given the relatively short time the IEC has had to prepare for elections, the commission was
required to retain some staff from Jordan’s Ministry of Interior, which formerly managed elections,
to assist with the technical administration of the process. Although the IEC is to be commended
for preparing in a short period of time, the commission’s independence could be questioned if it
becomes too reliant on Ministry of Interior staff.
Finally, regarding the IEC, the lack of training for staff is an area of concern; one civil society group
engaged in domestic monitoring conducted a survey that showed up to 53 percent of the Civil Status
and Passports Department staff engaged during the voter registration process had not received any
training prior to the registration period. Nonetheless, the IEC should be commended for an
ambitious goal to train 24,000 polling station workers in advance of the elections.
Regarding the election law, there is a vocal opposition that considers the recent changes to the
electoral framework to fall short of needed reforms in Jordan. A number of political groupings,
including most prominently the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Islamic Action Front, have called for
a boycott of the January 23 elections. They charge that the new electoral law perpetuates the status
quo by ensuring most parliamentarians will continue to be elected along tribal lines. Specifically, the
country’s single non-transferrable vote system remains in place.
