2013
Jordan Parliamentary Elections
52
law. To ensure that more women are elected and serve in parliament, Jordan needs to expand
women’s representation and institute an equitable method of allocating women’s seats.
Currently, there is little connection between votes won and power conveyed to election winners due
to parliament’s weak mandate and limited governing authority. A long-term solution to improving
the quality of electoral competition, and potentially lessening the practice of vote buying, would be
to increase the powers of the national parliament, thus increasing the value voters place on their
parliamentary vote.
IRI’s delegation makes the following preliminary recommendations as a roadmap for improving
future Jordanian elections. The recommendations will be further elaborated on in a full report IRI
will issue in the coming months.
•
Build on the IEC’s good start in election administration by making the institution more
independent, with its own full-time staff and direct access to investigative and policing
bodies, and allow IEC leadership to serve out their full terms.
•
Set future election dates before voter registration begins, and register lists and candidates at
least six months before Election Day to ensure the public has time to fully consider their
choices.
•
If substantial changes are made to the election law, provide a minimum period of three
months or more for voter education efforts before the start of voter registration to ensure
that voters clearly understand their rights and opportunities to participate fully in the election
process.
•
Ensure a vote has equal weight throughout the country by establishing uniform guidelines
based on population and then conducting redistricting.
•
Stimulate party development by restricting national list competition to parties and by
increasing the number of seats in parliament elected by national proportional list.
•
Establish clear financial disclosure regulations and enforcement mechanisms for candidates
and lists that require the public posting of all funds spent on campaigning and the origin of
those funds.
•
Support stronger judicial and criminal enforcement mechanisms for alleged electoral crimes,
including vote buying, vote selling and coercion, financial or otherwise, to influence political
support.
IRI’s delegation included representatives from Canada, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Poland
and the United States, and was led by Gahl Hodges Burt, Vice Chair of the
and a member of IRI’s Board of Directors; and Agnieszka Pomaska, member of the lower
house of the Polish Parliament and chair of the European Affairs Committee.
The 15 short-term observer teams built on the work which began with IRI’s October 2012 pre-
election assessment mission, and included three long-term observer teams that have been deployed
in the country since November 2012. IRI’s long-term observers met with government officials,
political campaign representatives, civil society activists and election stakeholders. They also
monitored voting and ballot counting on Election Day, and will observe the adjudication processes
and resolution of complaints following the elections.
Other members of IRI’s delegation were:
