Jordan - Election 2024

The Jordanian parliament is divided into two chambers: the Senate (appointed by the King) and the House of Representatives (elected). The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan held elections for the House of Representatives on September 10, 2024. These elections are significant as they are the first to occur after the passage of 2022 constitutional amendments and the adoption of new electoral and political party laws.

The constitution did not provide citizens the ability to choose their executive branch of government or upper house of parliament. The king was constitutionally empowered to appoint and dismiss the prime minister and the cabinet, as well as the members of the Senate and its speaker. Citizens could elect members of the lower house of parliament in generally credible periodic elections based on universal and equal suffrage conducted by secret ballot. With the exception of Amman, Wadi Musa (Petra), and Aqaba, citizens could elect 97 of the 100 mayors; they could elect some members of governorate councils while the cabinet could appoint 40 percent of them. Citizens could elect all members of municipal councils. While elections were generally well run, official obstacles to political party activity and campaigning limited participation.

Jordanian voters are set to elect 138 members to the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Jordanian Parliament, for a four-year mandate. The bicameral Parliament consists of the House of Representatives, whose 138 members are directly elected (an increase of eight seats from 2020), and the Senate, comprising 65 members appointed by the king. The House of Representatives term begins on the date when election results are published in the official gazette. The king holds the authority to extend the term of the House for one to two additional years by royal decree. Senators, like members of the House of Representatives, serve four-year terms.

Every Jordanian citizen who has reached the age of 18 at least 90 days before Election Day is entitled to vote in the House of Representatives elections. However, voting rights are suspended for members of the Jordanian Armed Forces, the General Intelligence Service, the Public Security Department, gendarmeries, and the Civil Defense while they are on active service (civil contractors to those organizations may vote). Individuals who have been declared bankrupt and have not yet been legally rehabilitated, or who lack civil and legal capacity, are also ineligible to vote.

937 candidates on 172 lists are competing for the 97 seats allocated to the 18 local electoral districts. Of those candidates, 190 are women (20 percent) and 56 are under age 35 (6 percent). Fifty-seven candidates are competing for the seven seats allocated for Christians, 19 are competing for the two seats allocated for Chechens and Circassians, and 166 are competing for the 18 seats reserved for women. An additional 24 women are competing for competitive seats outside the quota system.

686 candidates on 25 lists are competing for the 41 seats allocated to the national electoral district. Of those candidates, 187 are women (27 percent) and 154 are under age 35 (22 percent). Thirty-two candidates are competing for the two seats allocated for Christians and 11 are competing for the seat allocated for Chechens and Circassians.

Thirty-six of Jordan’s 38 licensed political parties fielded candidates on lists running for local electoral districts or the national electoral district.

Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: torture or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment by government authorities; arbitrary arrest and detention; political prisoners or detainees; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including harassment and intimidation of journalists, unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists, censorship, and enforcement of and threat to enforce criminal libel laws; serious restrictions on internet freedom; substantial interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, including overly restrictive laws on the organization, funding, or operation of nongovernmental organizations and civil society organizations; inability of citizens to change their government peacefully through free and fair elections; extensive gender-based violence, including but not limited to domestic or intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and other harmful practices; crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons; and significant restrictions on workers’ freedom of association, including threats against labor activists.

While local monitors reported local and regional elections in March 2022 were technically well administered, some watchers observed significant violations in the elections process and some reported accounts of vote-buying. Amman’s Al Hayat Center for Civil Society Development assessed voting secrecy was compromised in many polling booths due to heavy security presence throughout the country on election day. Violence reportedly broke out at 10 municipalities after the polling centers closed. Organized parties were largely absent from these elections, including the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Islamic Action Front, which boycotted the election.

The law prohibited parties based on religion, sect, race, gender, or origin, as well as membership in unlicensed parties. The law also prohibited members of foreign political organizations, judges, and security service personnel from joining parties. In the beginning of the year, there were approximately 58 different parties with cumulatively less than 40,000 members, and except for the Islamic Action Front, negligible party representation in parliament. The political parties law passed in 2022 required all existing parties to reregister by May 15. In May, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) announced 27 parties had successfully met current registration requirements under the 2022 Political Parties Law. The IEC ruled that 19 parties that applied did not meet registration requirements and were subsequently dissolved.

Even though the law afforded the rights of individuals to form parties, authorities reportedly intimidated individuals attempting to form political parties, and a long-standing fear of creating or joining political parties continued. According to media reports, many persons experienced or witnessed political activity being punished by authorities, resulting in blacklisting for jobs and economic opportunities. According to Freedom House, while voters and candidates were generally free from overt threats or violence, they remained heavily influenced by tribal affiliations and the state-sponsored patronage networks that accompanied them. Freedom House also reported the GID was widely believed to influence the electoral process.

The parliamentary elections were held 10 September 2024, with a participation rate of 32.25%, with 1,638,348 voters, out of 5,080,858 voters. 1,623 candidates competed in 197 local and general lists for 138 council seats. The lists of candidates in the 2024 elections were divided into lists for a general district, which are allocated to parties and have 41 seats, and candidates are voted on at the level of the entire kingdom, in addition to local lists for 18 districts, through which party and independent candidates can run, and candidates are voted on at the level of the district only.

The Jordanian Independent Election Commission announced 11 September 2024 that the Islamic Action Front Party won 31 seats in the Jordanian parliament out of 138, in an unprecedented result, while the Al-Wefaq Party came in second place with 21 seats. According to the results, the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood , won 17 seats on party lists and 14 seats on local lists.

In light of these results, the Islamic Party had made remarkable progress in the elections, which were held this time in light of a new law that aims to strengthen the role of political parties in parliament, as 41 seats out of 138 were allocated to them. While the presence of parties in the last elections in 2020 was limited to 12 seats, distributed among 4 parties, the Islamic Action Front Party won 5 of them.

Just as the victory of the Labor Front party was remarkable, so was the way some Israeli media outlets dealt with those elections. The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation titled its approach to the Jordanian parliamentary elections by saying, “In the week in which a Jordanian killed 3 Israelis, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan won 32 seats in the country’s elections.” These results reflect the current popular mood in Jordan, where Islamists have led widespread protests in the country over the past months in support of Palestine and against the war waged by Israel on the Gaza Strip.

The Secretary-General of the Front, Wael Al-Saqa, said, “We are happy with these results and with the confidence that the Jordanian people have given us. These elections were a step in the right direction in developing the political life system.” He added, "Gaza, Palestine and Jerusalem are all part of the official and popular Jordanian compass, and we will work to mobilize popular and official efforts to be of assistance to them and help them in obtaining their rights and defending them," promising to "provide them with material and in-kind assistance, and to be a lung for them in the path of liberation and obtaining their right to a free state."

Meanwhile, some Israeli pages on social media published a photo of the father of Maher Al-Jazi, the perpetrator of the Al-Karamah crossing operation, and said, “The father of Maher Al-Jazi, the perpetrator of the Allenby Bridge (Al-Karamah crossing) operation, voted for the Islamic Action Front, which achieved an unprecedented achievement in the Jordanian parliamentary elections.”