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 10 November 2020 to elect the members of the nineteenth

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

. Voter turnout was just 29.88%, the lowest in a decade. The elections took place as the country was experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases. As a result there were numerous calls on social media channels to boycott the elections, particularly as no alternatives to in-person voting were offered. The country went into a four-day total lockdown following elections, starting at 23:00 on election day, an hour later than the originally-stated 22:00. According to Washington Post, "wealthy business executives and tribal independents dominated, while strong, reform-oriented members of parliament lost their seats."

Electoral system

The 130 seats in the

consist of 115 members elected by

open list Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a party's candidates are elected. This is as opposed to closed list, which allows only active members, par ...

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

from 23 constituencies of between three and nine seats in size and 15 seats reserved for women.Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan: Election for Majlis al-Nuwaab (Jordanian House of Deputies) 2016
IFES Nine of the 115 proportional representation seats are reserved for the Christian minority, with another three reserved for the Chechen and Circassian minorities. There were 15 seats reserved for women who received the most votes but failed to be elected on their list in each of the twelve

governorates A governorate is an administrative division of a state. It is headed by a governor. As English-speaking nations tend to call regions administered by governors either states or provinces, the term ''governorate'' is often used in translation from ...

and the three Badia districts.

Contesting parties

A total of 294 party lists with 1,703 candidates contested the elections, including the Islamic Action Front, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the "Progressive" list, a coalition of socialist and nationalist parties including the Arab Ba'ath Progressive Party,

Jordanian Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party The Jordanian Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (JASBP), previously known as the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Jordan Region ( ar, حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي الأردني ''Ḥizb Al-Ba'aṯ Al-'Arabī Al-Ištirākī al-’Urdu ...

Jordanian Communist Party The Jordanian Communist Party (JCP; ar, الحزب الشیوعی الاردنی, ''al-Hizb al-Shuyu'i al-Urduni'') is a communist party in Jordan, founded in 1948. Its current general secretary is Dr. Munir Hamarana. It publishes ''al-Jamahir ...

Jordanian Democratic People's Party Jordanian Democratic People's Party ( ar, حزب الشعب الديمقراطي الأردني ''Hizb Al-Sha'ab Al-Dimuqrati Al-Urduni'', HASHD), is a communist party in Jordan. HASHD was formed in 1989, when the Democratic Front for the Liberat ...

and the Jordanian Democratic Popular Unity Party.

Conduct

Polls opened at 07:00, and were supposed to close at 19:00. However the closing was extended by two hours, with the voting window totalling 14 hours. The Independent Elections Commission has denied that the time extension was due to low turnout. More than 4.5 million Jordanians were eligible to vote in 23 constituencies. But only 1.38 million people, or 29.9 percent, voted – down from 36 percent turnout in 2016.

Results

According to Washington Post, "wealthy business executives and tribal independents dominated, while strong, reform-oriented members of parliament lost their seats. Broader-based coalitions fared poorly. Less than 10 percent of the 130 members of the next parliament will be from political parties. The most influential opposition party, the IAF, lost almost half of its seats. No women were elected beyond the 15-seat quota allotted them, though five had done so in the last election. Only 15 percent of those elected are under 40". A total of 1,387,698 votes have been cast, corresponding to a turnout of 29.88%.

References

{{Jordanian elections Jordanian general election General election Elections in Jordan Election and referendum articles with incomplete results