AMMAN, 1 August 2007 — Jordan’s first municipal elections since a new law guaranteeing a 20 percent quota for women was thrown into turmoil when the main Islamist party withdrew its candidates yesterday after balloting had already begun. The Islamist Action Front (IAF) party accused the government of fraud and a “democratic massacre.”
“We announce the pullout of the candidates of the Islamic Action Front from all polling stations and all municipalities in the kingdom,” the IAF said in a statement. The party accused the authorities of manipulating the votes being cast by military personnel who are taking part in voting for the first time in municipal elections.
Prime Minister Marouf Bakheet dismissed the decision as “illegal” and contrary to procedures, telling reporters that any pullout had to be done a day before the elections that started at 0400 GMT yesterday.
IAF MP Zuhair Abu Ragheb earlier told AFP that the party and the tolerated Muslim Brotherhood, which it represents in Parliament, pulled out all its 25 candidates running in municipal elections across Jordan.
The decision was taken after an emergency meeting of the IAF and Muslim Brotherhood leaderships “to discuss the dangerous fraud” which he claimed had taken place since polls opened.
An IAF statement said “hundreds of military personnel are being bused from their bases to voting centers, where we (the Islamists) have candidates, carrying ballots in favor of certain candidates.”
The IAF also claimed several cases of “fraud” namely in votes being cast more than one time. “We hold the government totally responsible for this situation,” the statement said.
Nearly two million Jordanians are registered to vote in 1,980 polling stations across the tiny desert kingdom to elect 965 municipal council members and mayors from 2,686 candidates, in the country’s 94 municipalities.
The vote is the first to be held since a new law was passed earlier this year granting women a 20 percent quota and reducing voter age. Under the law, 218 municipal council seats were allocated for women and the age of eligible voters was reduced from 19 to 18 years to expand the voter base.
