Election officials in Jordan voiced concern about the attempts made by a number of candidates to buy people’s votes to win the parliamentary elections on January 23. The London-based al-Hayat daily quoted a Jordanian official as saying that his department has received reports about the illegal activities made by certain candidates who have embarked on buying people’s votes. The official underlined that the move is an instance of fraud and runs counter to the government promises about campaign against corruption and implementing reforms in the country, cautioning that the move threatens arrangement of healthy parliamentary elections in Jordan.
He said that these malfeasances were mostly reported in deprived and poor provinces as well as Palestinian refugee camps where the refugees are entitled to vote like the Jordanian citizens.
The Integrity Coalition for Election Observation (Nazaha) on Thursday said it had recorded attempts at vote buying in Amman’s 2nd District, carried out by a person campaigning for a former MP.
In a report issued Thursday, Nazaha said that the campaigner had offered JD80 per vote and that the coalition had informed the Independent Elections Commission (IEC) of the incident.
Full Article: Fars News Agency :: Jordan’s Election Officials Concerned about Candidates’ Vote-Buying Attempts.
