General elections were held in

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

on 17 June 2003. They were the fourth contest held after the political liberalization started in 1989 and the first elections to take place since 1997. The number of voters who cast their ballots constituted almost 58.8 percent of registered voters, a record high in the last years, who total 2,325,496 of the country's 5.4 million citizens. The Kingdom's most prominent tribal representatives carried a large majority of the seats. The highest turnout, 86 percent, was registered in

Karak Karak may refer to: Places * Al-Karak or Kerak, city and Crusader castle in Jordan ** Karak Governorate, Jordan * al-Karak, Syria, city in Syria's Daraa Governorate * Karak Nuh, village in the Beqaa Valley, Lebanon * Karak, Iran (disambiguation) ...

, while the lowest ratio of voters, 44.62 percent, was in

Amman Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...

.Jordanian Elections 2003
Jordanian Embassy, Washington D.C.

Political Climate in the Region

The elections were first scheduled for November 2001, but were delayed due to political instability in the region. In fact, the

second Intifada The Second Intifada ( ar, الانتفاضة الثانية, ; he, האינתיפאדה השנייה, ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada ( ar, انتفاضة الأقصى, label=none, '), was a major Palestinian uprising against Israel. ...

started on 28 September 2000 and King Abdullah found it adequate to defer the parliamentary elections, the

Constitution of Jordan The Constitution of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was adopted on 11 January 1952 and has been amended many times. It defines the hereditary monarchic rule with a parliamentary system of representation. It stipulates the separated powers of th ...

allows the monarch to postpone the elections for a maximum of two years. The parliament was also solved by a

Royal Decree A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used for ...

in 2001.

Election law

Elections Seats Scheme of 2003 was established under Election Law No.34 of 2001. It added six seats to women, lowered the voting age from 19 to 18, resized electoral districts raising their number from 20 to 45, and re-approved the one-person one-vote electoral system. Many parties and political figures found this law unfair. The law reserves special ethnical quotas for

Circassians The Circassians (also referred to as Cherkess or Adyghe; Adyghe and Kabardian: Адыгэхэр, romanized: ''Adıgəxər'') are an indigenous Northwest Caucasian ethnic group and nation native to the historical country-region of Circassia in ...

Chechens The Chechens (; ce, Нохчий, , Old Chechen: Нахчой, ''Naxçoy''), historically also known as ''Kisti'' and ''Durdzuks'', are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group of the Nakh peoples native to the North Caucasus in Eastern Europe. "Europ ...

and

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

, the parliamentary seat distribution is shown in the following table:

Women Participation

A special quota system has been created to ensure women would be elected to the lower chamber, six seats were assigned at national level, i.e. the six women with the highest percentage nationwide won the six reserved seats. Many women ran for the elections, but none won a seat over the special quota.

Parties and Candidates

In 2003 elections, there were 765 candidates competing for the 110 seats. The major opposition party, the

Islamic Action Front The Islamic Action Front ( ar, جبهة العمل الإسلامي ''Jabhat al-'Amal al-Islami'', IAF) is an Islamist political party in Jordan. It is the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. Founded in 1992 with 350 members, E ...

did not boycott the elections, as did other opposition parties. Most candidates were independents of various tendencies, both non-partisans and tribal leaders.

Results

Assembly of Senators

The number of Senators cannot be more than half of deputies, therefore 55 senators were constitutionally appointed by the king.

Zaid al-Rifai Zaid al-Rifai ( ar, زيد الرفاعي) (born 27 November 1936 in Amman, Jordan) is a Jordanian politician that served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Jordan from April 1984 to April 1989. Biography He served as Prime Minister of Jordan and f ...

was appointed as Spokesman of the House and 4 women were included in the upper house.JORDAN, Elections and Parliament
, European Institute for Research on Mediterranean and Euro-Arab Cooperation

References

External links

{{Jordanian elections Elections in Jordan 2003 in Jordan

June 2003 events in Asia Election and referendum articles with incomplete results