By Xinhua
Amman : Jordan kicked off its elections for the lower house of parliament on Tuesday morning. Nearly 2.5 million voters will choose 110 deputies from about 885 candidates, including 199 women, who are vying for a four-year term.
The polls for the 15th parliament open from 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) to 7 p.m. (1700 GMT), but election supervisors have the right to extend the voting period further in case voters are still present at polling centers at closure time.
The security situation was taken care of as some 40,000 policemen were already deployed across the Kingdom to prevent any problems and ensure a smooth process, the authorities said.
As 2008 is expected to be a tough year for the country facing new hikes in fuel prices from January, most candidates have chosen slogans linked to economic challenges.
Minimum wages in the tiny kingdom are now set at 110 dinars a month (around 156 dollars) and the unemployment rate is between 14and 30 percent.
Analysts said that independents, mainly representatives of tribes and families loyal to the royal family, are expected to sweep the polls in the kingdom with a population of six million.
The Islamic Action Front (IAF), the country’s largest political opposition party, is fielding 22 candidates who cluster in Amman and other major cities, 10 candidates less than the number of IAF nominees in previous polls.
IAF, the political wing of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, had 17 seats in parliament before this voting. It had threatened to boycott the polls over claims that municipal elections in July were rigged.
There are also some other political parties choosing to support six candidates, which was called by some observers here as just a “symbolic gesture”. The scene seems mainly dominated by tribal candidates and independents, they said.
Officials have expected that at least 60 percent of the eligible voters would turn out to cast their ballots.
A recent poll by the University of Jordan showed that voter turnout is not expected to exceed 55 percent, while another poll conducted by Ipsos Marketing Research in October put the percentage at 70.
To encourage participation, the government declared Tuesday a holiday, and the government and civil society institutions have also launched campaigns targeting high turnout, especially among the youth.
The election is expected to be a “big step” to bolster the country’s democratic credentials as a close ally of the United States.
At a press conference on Sunday, the government spokesperson Nasser Judeh said the government hopes that “all citizens will exercise their national duty by casting their votes on election day to form a Parliament capable of partnering with the government to face the Kingdom’s challenges.”
“The various government institutions have completed the necessary arrangements to ensure free and fair parliamentary elections,” Judeh said.
Jordan is a constitutional monarchy with representative government. The reigning monarch is the head of state, the chief executive and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, while the Parliament has “limited power”.
The Legislative powers are shared by the king and Parliament, which is comprised of the 55-member Upper House of Notables (Majlis al-A’yan), or Senator, and the 110-member Lower House of Deputies (Majlis al-Nuwwab).
While senators are appointed by the King, deputies of the lower house are directly elected by universal suffrage.