Jordanians vote to elect new parliament

By Laith al-Juneidi
AMMAN (AA) – Jordanian voters headed to polls on Tuesday to elect a new parliament.

A total of 1,674 candidates, including 360 women, are vying for 130 seats in parliament.

Some 4.6 million voters are eligible to cast ballot in Tuesday’s vote in 1,824 polling stations across the kingdom, according to the country’s election commission.

There are 47 parties are vying for seats in Tuesday’s parliamentary election, said Amer Bani Amer, the director of Rased-Hayyat Center, which monitors the government and parliament.

Amer said the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, are fielding 41 candidates in the polls.

The legislature consists of two houses; the Senate, the upper house of parliament, which has 65 seats, and the House of Representatives, the lower house of parliament.

*Bassel Barakat contributed to this report from Ankara