Officials and observers of the Jordanian elections have admitted that political money has been used to influence the electoral process leading up to elections due to take place on January 23rd. According to them, if the phenomenon continues, the future of the elections would be endangered, their integrity would be called into question and official promises of reform and combating corruption would be in “an unenviable position.”
They also talked about the major role of money in forming big electoral lists and buying votes, particularly in poor provinces, where a tribal social structure prevails and marginalized Palestinian refugees living in camps are allowed to vote as citizens of Jordan.
A senior Jordanian official told Al-Hayat that candidates and their supporters have seized voting cards from large numbers of citizens in different areas and cities, in exchange for a specific sum of money. He explained that “the use of political money in the elections places the state in big trouble, if the issue is not seriously addressed.”
Abdul Ilah Khatib, a close associate of the head of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) expressed his displeasure at the spread of political money and explicitly threatened to withdraw from overseeing elections on the polling day in an official and unannounced session, if the executive authorities, particularly security authorities, do not put an end to some of the candidates’ violations. Some told Al-Hayat that Khatib, who prefers to stay away from the media, “has attentively observed prominent figures [use] of political money and submitted a list of those accused of buying votes and taking advantages of the voters’ need for security.”
These threats have coincided with similar indications from the royal palace, as Jordanian King Abdullah II warned prominent figures about political money. He stressed in a closed consultative meeting a few days ago that “there will be no possibility of tampering with or falsifying the voters’ will this time," in a clear reference to official breaches in the previous electoral process, which the government has acknowledged.
The IEC has dealt with a number of issues related to political money in the past few days, most notably the seizure of thousands of voting cards by a candidate in exchange for a specific amount of money, and the arrest of a woman, after large quantities of voting cards and IDs were found in her possession in the city of Salt, neighboring Amman. IEC spokesman Hussein Bani Hani said that “the IEC filed complaints accompanied with documents and data proving that corrupt money is pumped into the electoral process".
