Jordan holds parliamentary election clouded by Gaza war

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN (Reuters) -Jordanians voted on Tuesday in the first parliamentary election under a new law meant to dilute the outsized impact of tribalism and bolster political parties, with Islamists expected to gain support due to anger over Israel's war in Gaza.

The 2022 electoral law is designed to pave the way for political parties to play a bigger role, though the election is still expected to keep the 138-seat parliament in the hands of tribal and pro-government factions.

The new law for the first time directly allocates 41 seats for over 30 licensed and mostly pro-government parties. It also raised the quota for women's representation to 18 from 15 seats and lowered the age for elected deputies to 25 from 30.

Jordan retains a voting system that favours sparsely populated tribal and provincial regions over the densely populated cities mostly inhabited by Jordanians of Palestinian descent, which are Islamist strongholds and highly politicised.

More than two-thirds of Jordanians live in cities but are allocated less than a third of assembly seats.

The polls were marked by widespread voter apathy with initial official figures showing that turnout among the 5.1 million eligible voters was 32.25%, slightly higher than 29% in the last election in 2020.

Final results are expected on Wednesday.

Voter participation in urban areas where the Islamists and urban Palestinians traditionally win seats, was proportionately half that of rural areas where voting is according to family and tribal allegiance.

Still, officials say this election is a milestone in a gradual democratisation process and should bolster turnout.

"This is a step forward towards political modernisation with the presence of a new parliament based on a multi-party system," said Musa Maaytah, chairman of the Independent Election Commission that administers the vote.

Many Jordanians say a passive parliament packed with pro-government deputies is powerless to bring change.

"People have lost trust. Whom do I vote for? Those trampled on even before they enter parliament? Decisions are not in their hands, they are just chess pieces," said Ibrahim Jamal, an Amman shopkeeper.

Officials say King Abdullah’s decision to go ahead with the vote was a message that politics is continuing as normal despite the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which has clouded Jordan's economic and political outlook.

In a country where anti-Israel sentiment runs high, the war is expected to buoy the electoral fortunes of the Islamists, Jordan's largest opposition bloc, who have led some of the region's biggest rallies backing the Palestinian militant Hamas group, their ideological allies.

The Islamic Action Front aims to win enough seats to help reverse unpopular economic policies, stand up to laws curbing public freedoms and oppose further normalisation with Israel, with which Jordan has a 1994 peace treaty.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; editing by Michael Perry and Mark Heinrich)