Jordan's human rights watchdog reports poll violations

Jan 8, 2008, 13:06 GMT

Amman - Jordan's National Centre of Human Rights (NCHR) on Tuesday cast doubt on the fairness of parliamentary elections held in the country on November 20.

In a 23-page report, the state-funded body said several violations were committed before and during the polling process.

'The violations of the election law itself cast heavy doubt on the conformity of the election process in the country to international and national standards,' the report said.

The NCHR questioned the constitutionality and the legality of the election law, saying it was enacted in 2001 as an 'interim law' and the successive parliaments failed to put it into serious discussion.

The country's human rights watchdog criticized the massive shift of voters from one constituency to another on voting day and the 'discrimination' in terms of allowing certain candidates access to electorate lists and withholding them from others.

It also cited the failure of the authorities to conduct 'deterrent' judicial proceedings against those involved in vote buying practices and the harassment by security organs of certain candidates and their supporters.

The NCHR blasted the previous government of Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit for its failure to respond to requests by some 15 human rights bodies operating in the country to monitor the elections process, including vote casting and counting.

The coalition of non-government human rights groups decided to refrain from monitoring the polling process, saying the supervision scope accorded to them was insufficient to ensure the fairness of the elections.

The NCHR's report lends credibility to the charges by the Islamic Action Front (IAF), Jordan's largest political party, that the elections were 'rigged' with the primary aid of curtailing the presence of Islamists at the lower house of parliament, diplomats said.

The IAF, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, suffered a setback in the November elections, returning only six deputies in the new 110-member chamber, compared with 17 seats in the previous polls of 2003.

In a previous report the NCHR also reported violations in the country's municipal elections that were held on July 31.