A royal decree was issued on Tuesday delaying Jordan’s general elections in line with the Constitution, as the government said it would need at least 10 months to implement procedures introduced with a new temporary law, reported the Jordan Times.
The Constitution grants the king the power to postpone elections for up to two years, following recommendations by the council of ministers and when circumstances are seen as impeding the electoral process.
It remains unclear when the King Abdullah will announce the election date, although analysts believe that the first polls under the reign of the monarch will be held by mid-2002.
Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Awad Khleifat said the government would need months to float and award a tender as well as distribute magnetic voter cards to the estimated 2,760,000 eligible voters.
The new magnetic cards, bearing the picture, national number and electoral district of voters, will be marked with a special water stamp — a seven-pointed star — after the ballot has been cast, he said.
“This will make it impossible for people to vote more than once,” Khleifat told a joint press conference with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Faris Nabulsi and Information Minister Saleh Qallab.
“The stamps cannot be faked or changed,” Khleifat said, adding that at the moment only one German company was specialized in issuing such cards.
The government stressed that voting procedures would be made much easier for citizens, who would be free to cast their ballots in any polling station within their district, and no longer in a specific one, according to the paper.
The new law, endorsed by King Abdullah on Sunday, raised the number of parliamentary seats from 80 to 104 and redefined districts and the allocation of seats among the constituencies — a move that the government said was aimed at ensuring greater representation to all sectors of society.
“The redrawing of [districts] granted justice to all geographic areas of the kingdom. This model is close to the British system. We would have liked to have the number of [districts] equal the number of deputies, or the whole kingdom to be one single constituency,” Khleifat said.
“But that will happen at a later stage, once political parties will be more consolidated and active in society.” – Albawaba.com
