Vote recount gives leftist ticket parliament seat

Fuente: 
The Jordan Times
Fecha de publicación: 
26 Ene 2013

The Independent Elections Commission (IEC) on Saturday said the Citizenship ticket, led by former minister Hazem Qashou, did not win a seat in the 17th Lower House, granting the seat instead to the leftist Democratic Renaissance list.

After recounting the votes following a complaint by the leftist list’s leader, Ablah Abu Olbeh, to the National Centre for Human Rights, the commission recounted the votes and discovered a mistake in the preliminary result.

Last week, the IEC had announced that Qashou’s ticket had won a seat in the Lower House within the 27 seats designated for a national list, but it said on Saturday there was a mistake in recording the number of votes for the Citizenship.

Qashou said he was informed that the miscalculation of votes was at a polling centre in Maan, noting that the IEC discovered that instead of counting three votes for the Citizenship list, the IEC employees there wrote 52 votes.

Preliminary results showed that Qashou’s ticket won 13,966 vote, while Abu Olbeh’s list won 13,890 votes, but after the recount, the Citizenship list’s votes increased by only two more votes, while the Democratic Renaissance list received 147 more votes, winning the seat instead, the IEC said.

Qashou questioned the IEC’s administration of the polls, noting that the only reason for accepting the “IEC’s scenario” was to avoid further instability in the country.

Under the preliminary results of the elections, 22 lists won seats in parliament, with one gaining three seats and two winning two seats.

The IEC on Saturday also recounted the ballots in box 137 in Balqa’s 1st District over discrepancies between the total votes and the number of votes for each candidate. But the recount did not change the result or the order of candidates, the IEC said in a statement carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

Meanwhile, the three deputies who won seats in the Lower House despite their detention a few days before the elections for suspected involvement in vote buying or holding voters identification cards, will have to attend their trial’s hearings until the courts issues a verdict.

Mohammad Khashman (National Union list), Ahmad Safadi (Amman, 3rd District) and Adnan Abu Rukbeh (Madaba, 1st District) will not become full members of parliament until the court rules in their cases. If convicted, they will lose their House seats, a legal expert told The Jordan Times on condition of anonymity.

If Khashman, head of the National Union list, is convicted, the second candidate on the list will obtain his seat, the expert said.

But, for those who won at the district level, by-elections will be held in their respective districts for voters to elect their replacements.

The three were detained a week before the elections for alleged charges of vote buying and holding voter’s identification cards, they were all released on bail, but they will have to attend further questioning sessions by judicial authorities, before their cases are sent to court.

 

Khaled Neimat

http://jordantimes.com/vote-recount-gives-leftist-ticket-parliament-seat