Middle East News

Jordan refers 25 to public prosecutor on election fraud charges

Nov 5, 2010, 12:34 GMT

Amman - At least 25 people, including a candidate, have been referred by Jordanian security authorities to the public prosecutor on vote-buying charges, judicial sources said Friday.

All suspects belong to one of the Amman election constituencies, they added.

It was the first case a running candidate being charged with vote buying, a phenomenon that was reportedly rampant in the 2007 polls.

If condemned, the suspects could be sentenced to seven years in jail, in accordance with a new amendment to the election law, the judicial sources said.

The move apparently came after concerns expressed on Thursday by the state-funded National Centre for Human Rights (NCHR), which reported new methods of election fraud that jeopardised the fairness of the Tuesday polls.

The elections are boycotted by the country's main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood movement and its political arm, the Islamic Action Front (IAF). They accuse the government of failure to provide adequate assurances that no 'rigging' would take place this year as happened in 2007.

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