AMMAN, 22 November 2007 — Jordan’s Islamist opposition cried foul yesterday after suffering a big setback in parliamentary polls in which reports emerged of vote-buying despite pledges of transparency from the government.
Only six of the 22 candidates fielded by the Islamic Action Front were victorious in Tuesday’s election, final results showed, a tally sharply down on the 17 seats the group won in the last polls in 2003.
“There was clear vote-rigging in several districts during Tuesday’s elections,” IAF spokesman Jamil Abu Baker told AFP. “We did not expect all of our candidates to win, but thought that at least 16 or 18 of them would on the basis of our extensive polling.”
At a later news conference, Abu Baker demanded that the government order a rerun of the election in those constituencies where fraud had been committed. Analysts had predicted that the IAF would end up with 17 of the 110 seats in the lower house of Parliament, equaling its 2003 score.
But the Islamists failed even to win a single seat in their traditional stronghold of Zarqa, an impoverished city east of the capital. “Look at the results in Zarqa, the fraud is obvious,” Abu Baker told AFP. The IAF’s election committee warned that the handling of the polls would damage Jordan’s international reputation.
“What happened during the voting on Tuesday was an electoral massacre, which will have harmful repercussions for Jordan’s society, political development, reform, and social and economic justice,” it said. “This will also tarnish the kingdom’s image worldwide.”
The IAF had threatened to boycott Tuesday’s elections after it withdrew its candidates from municipal polls in July following what it said was widespread vote-rigging by the authorities. It only agreed to participate after receiving official assurances that the elections would be fair.
“Our mistake was that we believed in government promises,” a senior Islamist told AFP. “What the government said was nothing but a trap.” The Islamists had demanded independent monitors for the polls, the second to take place under King Abdallah, who has promised fair elections in Jordan. But Prime Minister Marouf Bakheet turned down the request.
Amman newspapers had carried reports of vote buying by pro-government candidates ahead of Tuesday’s elections. One paper published a picture showing a voter allegedly receiving money from the aide of a candidate.
Interior Minister Eid Al-Fayez said on Tuesday that the authorities had arrested two people who “tried to buy votes” in Balqa province and in the capital. But he insisted that the issue had been “exaggerated by the media, and there is no proof to support such claims.”
The Islamist and leftist opposition will have no more than 10 MPs between them in the new Parliament. There will also be seven women, one of whom — dentist Falak Al-Jamaani — won her seat without recourse to the quota of six seats reserved for women. No woman won a seat in the 2003 polls except through the quota system.
A record 199 women stood in Tuesday’s election, more than three times the 54 who stood four years ago. Following the elections, Abdallah is expected to appoint a new prime minister “in the coming few days,” officials said.
