Only 38% of local elections candidates have bachelors degree — study

AMMAN — Seventy per cent of the candidates running for the upcoming municipal and governorate elections believe that the upcoming elections will be completely fair, a local organisation said on Wednesday.

The Civil Coalition for Monitoring Elections and the Performance of Elected Councils (Rased) said the entity interviewed candidates running for the elections that are slated on March 22.

The study showed that 53 of the candidates were former mayors while one candidate was a former MP, the organisation said in a statement made available to The Jordan Times.

The candidates’ professional background showed that 34.8 per cent of the candidates were military veterans, while 33.7 per cent were public sector employees.

The study indicated that 45 per cent of the current candidates ran in the previous elections.

“Seventy-three per cent of the candidates depended on tribal consensus or a consensus of several tribal groups in the same geographic area, while 20 per cent ran independently,” according to the study.

Only 2 per cent of the respondents said they relied on political parties, while 5 per cent depended on the youth in their geographical area, the study added.

With regards to the educational background, the study indicated that 16 per cent of the candidates have graduate degrees and 38.2 per cent have a bachelor’s degree.

With reference to the candidates’ trust in the ability of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to manage the electoral process, the interviews’ results showed that 76.8 per cent of the respondents highly trust the IEC’s ability to manage the electoral process.

Meanwhile, 17.8 per cent moderately trust the IEC’s ability, 3.7 per cent have a limit trust, and 1.7 do not trust the IEC’s ability.

The IEC said on Monday that the total number of registered candidates who will compete for 1,135 seats for the governorate and municipal elections’ race later this month was 4,647, including 846 were women.

Last week, the IEC announced that 13.3 million ballot papers were printed with security marks for the upcoming elections with three colours: One for the city council presidency seat, one for the city council membership seat and one for the governorate seat.

Some 4,602,135 people, including 2,437,340 women, are eligible to vote in the upcoming elections.

There will be 1,845 polling stations that will, for the time being, contain 6,907 ballot boxes. The number could decrease or increase based on future needs. 

The Cabinet has decided to hold governorate and municipal council elections in November. 

The Cabinet also approved the Amman Municipal Council Election Law and electoral appeals for 2021.