The electoral commission estimates the participation in the legislative elections in Jordan at around 32%

September 11 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Jordan’s electoral commission has put the turnout at around 32 percent in Tuesday’s legislative elections and confirmed that more than half a million Jordanians living abroad were unable to vote, even though their names were included in the census.

The chairman of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), Musa al-Maaita, has indicated that 32.25 percent of Jordanians cast their vote, explaining that this is 250,000 more than in the previous elections, according to a report by the Jordanian state news agency, Petra.

He also said that some 515,000 Jordanians living abroad were not able to vote and recalled that the electoral law excludes expatriates, unless they move to Jordanian territory to vote, even though their names were included in the census of the Ministry of the Interior.

For his part, the spokesman for the body, Mohamad Jair Rauashdé, said that some 45 violations were recorded during the vote, including one case of vote buying and seven cases in which voters tried to impersonate another person.

The elections will determine the composition of the new lower house of parliament, the first vote since the reshuffle of the electoral law approved in 2022 as part of a reform process to increase political representation that also led to an increase in the powers of King Abdullah II.

The vote also takes place amid the crisis in the Middle East following the military offensive launched by Israel against the Gaza Strip following the attacks carried out on October 7, 2023 by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and other Palestinian factions.