JORDAN GOES TO THE POLLS AMID SURGE IN CORONAVIRUS CASES
▶ A record 364 women are running in the elections, a 44% increase
Jordanians will go to the polls today, to vote in parliamentary elections that the government insists must take place despite a sharp rise in coronavirus cases.
The election for the 130-member House of Representatives comes after the economy retreated sharply amid the Covid-19 pandemic, and the authorities took a tougher line against critics.
“Economic, political and social life must continue,” Minister of Political and Parliamentary Affairs Musa Al Maaytah said, dismissing calls from some Jordanians to postpone the poll.
Parliament has limited influence in the kingdom, where ultimate decision making rests with King Abdullah II and elections are traditionally marked by low turnout and weighted in favour of the country’s East Bank tribes in outlying regions.
The election usually produces a mix that is dominated by tribal representatives as well as urban businessmen, a few independent politicians and a 15-member women’s quota.
But the last elections in 2016 included the return to parliament of the Islamic Action Front, a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, after a nine-year boycott.
The group’s constituency is concentrated in urban areas. It had 16 seats in the legislature that King Abdullah dissolved two months ago as part of the procedure to prepare for a new parliament.
The monarch holds Jordan’s main constitutional powers and commands the security forces. Last month, he chose veteran diplomat Bisher Al Khasawneh as prime minister, a position he is expected to retain after the election.
Changes to electoral law over the past eight years have allowed for some candidates to be chosen on a nationwide basis, as opposed to local constituencies, without significantly diminishing the influence of the tribes.
The pandemic has restricted campaigning by the 1,674 candidates mostly to Facebook. Jordan has reported more than 109,000 Covid- 19 cases and 1,230 deaths, most of them in the past six weeks.
A record 364 women are running in the elections, a 44 per cent increase from 2016. For the first time, three all-female electoral lists and dozens of women are competing for seats outside of the quota.
They are running on platforms that range from job creation to overhauling Jordan’s overburdened health sector. Some women candidates say they want to put an end to patriarchy.
“Before, some men would just add a woman with the right family name to their list to pick up a quota seat,” said Wafa Yousif Tarawneh, a candidate for the western city of Karak.
The pandemic has worsened economic difficulties and increased tensions between the authorities and their critics.
In July, the security forces closed a teachers’ union and arrested members of its leadership, accusing them of incitement and corruption.
The World Bank expects Jordan’s economy, which has been stagnating in recent years, to contract by 3.5 per cent this year.
Unemployment is running at least 23 per cent and public debt has been steadily rising to beyond the size of Jordan’s national budget.
During this tumultuous year, many outstanding female politicians have demonstrated their gift for leadership on the world stage. In the Middle East, a whole generation of women have seen their position strengthened.
A record 364 Jordanian women are running in the country’s parliamentary elections today. This is a 44 per cent increase from the last elections, in 2016. Three all-women electoral lists have been formed and the number of female candidates far exceeds the minimum number of seats allocated for women by a legal quota.
In Egypt, meanwhile, Parliament in June approved an amendment to the constitution, which now allocates 25 per cent of all seats to women. In the immediate term, quotas are a crucial step in guaranteeing better female representation, advancing the rights of women and ensuring that their voices are heard. But allocations must translate into action, lest they risk becoming tokenistic. Iran, for instance, prides itself on empowering women to take an active role in the workforce. In a statement in September, an Iranian official publicly affirmed that there is no legal impediment to a woman running for president in next year’s elections. But in a country where female representatives account for a mere six per cent of seats in Parliament, such a feat appears unlikely.
In much of the region, women who aspire to high office are targeted for harassment, if not by authorities then by private citizens. A Jordanian study published last week revealed that one in three female candidates for the parliamentary elections said they were targeted by cyber bullies. This trend is as evident across the Middle East as it is in the wider world. Women continue to pay a heavy price for being in the public eye. Last month Reporters Without Borders condemned an online hate campaign directed at three Lebanese female journalists.
Enshrining representation in law and encouraging the public and private sectors to give women a voice is key to empowering them in the long run. That strategy is familiar in the UAE, where it has bolstered female representation and women’s rights with great success. According to the World Economic Forum’s latest Global Gender Gap report, the UAE is the leading country when it comes to gender equality in the region.
Fifty per cent of the UAE’s Federal National Council are women. Total parity has become mandatory following a 2018 presidential decree. The Emirates has also issued landmark decisions to advance equality in the workplace. In September, a presidential decree was issued to ensure women are granted equal pay.
It is time for the region to move past gender stereotypes, and strive towards parity. Many countries in the Middle East are moving in the right direction. There is undoubtedly, however, a long way to go, in terms of the region’s culture and its statistics on representation and pay. But each advancement is hugely significant, for the sake of millions of women and girls in the region who must believe, for everyone’s benefit, that they can have a seat at the table of power.