Jordan votes in polls boycotted by Islamists

Jordanians turned out in numbers on Tuesday to vote in elections likely to produce MPs with tribal links and loyal to the government that faces little challenge after opposition Islamists pulled out.

Senior election official Saad Shehab announced a 32 per cent turnout by 1.30pm (1130 GMT).

"Voter turnout is reassuring so far. It's expected to increase in the coming hours as everything is going smoothly," Interior Minister Nayef Qadi told reporters.

The polls come as Jordan faces an economic crisis with a record budget deficit of two billion dollars and a foreign debt of 11 billion dollars, or nearly 60 percent of GDP.

Around 2.5 million Jordanians are eligible to vote at 1,492 polling stations, choosing from 763 candidates vying for a four-year term in the 120-seat lower house of parliament, with 12 seats reserved for women.

Nearly 100 candidates are former MPs, and 134 are women.

"We hope the lower house will represent all Jordanians and enhance the country's achievements," Prime Minister Samir Rifai told reporters after casting his ballot at a school in Jabal Al-Hussein, near Amman's city centre.

Rented buses were seen in different parts of Amman carrying people to vote as dozens queued in lines at polling stations.

Similar scenes were witnessed outside a polling centre in Rabiah, west of the capital, where scores of supporters of the various candidates jostled to catch the attention of voters.

In the mainly Christian city of Madaba close to Amman, around 30 people were arrested on their way to a polling station "for carrying knives and axes," police spokesman Mohammad Khatib said without elaborating.

And in Muqablein area, in Amman's east, a drunken driver was arrested after he rammed through a polling centre, injuring two people, Khatib said.

Pro-government candidates and representatives of tribes are likely to sweep the polls in the country of 6.3 million people, as experts fear that an opposition-free parliament will affect reform.

The Islamic Action Front (IAF) party is boycotting the election in protest at constituency boundaries determined under a new electoral law adopted in May.

It says these over-represent rural areas considered loyal to the government at the expense of urban areas regarded as Islamist strongholds, and has complained that the electoral law returned to a previous controversial voting system.

"They (Islamists) chose not to practice their constitutional right and participate. They have the right to do so. It's their decision," Rifai said after voting.

IAF head Hamzah Mansur defended the decision to boycott the vote. "Reform cannot be achieved unless there is real public pressure by all possible, lawful means," he told AFP.

Senate president Taher Masri said however the decision would weaken parliament.

"The boycott by the Islamists, the main opposition group in Jordan, means that we are heading for a parliament without organised opposition," he said.

Seven Islamist candidates have registered as independents, defying the boycott, and now face expulsion from the IAF, the political arm of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood.

A survey by the University of Jordan's Centre for Strategic Studies showed on Sunday that 44 percent of 1,791 Jordanians polled said they will vote for pro-government candidates while 13 percent said they will vote for tribal hopefuls and eight percent for independent Islamists.

"I don't expect a lot from the lower house and honestly I am voting because it's a duty towards my country and my tribe," voter Hanna Akrush, 75, told AFP outside a polling station in the northwestern town of Fuheis, wearing a red and white keffiyeh.

"Anyway I hope our MPs will at least try to do something about poverty and unemployment."

Jordan has been without a parliament since November 2009 when the king dissolved the legislature and called an election two years early after press allegations about ineffectiveness and corruption among MPs.

Polling stations were to close at 7pm (1700 GMT), while Tuesday has been declared a holiday to encourage people to vote.

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