Women win 66 local council seats by acclamation — IEC

AMMAN — While the final lists of candidates for the upcoming local elections will be announced on August 1, women have so far won 66 local council seats by acclamation, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) said on Sunday.

By Sunday afternoon, 46 candidates have withdrawn from the race for the August 15 elections, IEC Spokesperson Jihad Momani told The Jordan Times.

He added that the commission has rejected 83 candidacy applications that did not meet one or more of the candidacy conditions or due to the candidates’ failure of providing the needed documents.

Out of these 83 rejections, 42 candidates filed a rejection complaint in courts, over a three-day period that concluded this Saturday, Momani added.

The IEC will display the preliminary candidates’ lists from July 22 to 23, a two-day period that will be followed by three days where voters can challenge the lists.

Courts will look into the candidates’ complaints from July 27 to 29, allowing the IEC to issue the final candidates’ lists by the end of the working day of July 31.

“Candidates’ final lists will be officially announced on August 1,” he said over the phone.

Regarding seats won by acclamation, the spokesperson said the results will be announced once the final lists are issued. 

If the Civil Status Department’s offices were able to issue smart ID cards for all eligible voters before the voting day, then only the new cards would be used for identity validation. Otherwise, both the new and the old ID cards will be used, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, quoted Momani in a recent panel discussion. 

He also underlined a number of measures and techniques that will be used on voting day to guarantee the elections’ transparency, including security marks on voting papers, secret ink, ID cards, manual and electronic voters’ lists and cameras.

Momani added, according to Petra, that holding local and municipal elections on the same day saves over JD20 million.