Jordan Watch
An update and analysis of the progress, or lack of it in political, economic, social and cultural reform in Jordan.

Poll: One Man Vote System Rooted in Jordanian Society
Tuesday, November 13, 2007

I felt like being injected with an overdose of frustration while going through the results of the poll conducted by the University of Jordan's Centre for Strategic Studies (CSS) about the quality of the performance of the 14th Parliament. Although the press coverage focused on the negative reflections about the performance of the Parliament my main concern was going for the root cause of all the inability of the democratization process to launch in Jordan which is the one man one vote electoral system. Again this is my own assumption.
I found out that according to the poll the majority of the sample of 1,722 respondents thought otherwise. About 34% of the respondents thought that the best electoral system is the currently used one where one vote is provided for a condidate in a district of more than one seat. In addition, 27% think that the best system is one vote and one district for each seat which will mean a real war in elections between tribes. The two forms of the one man vote system account for 61% which is a real majority. Only 17% favored the proportional list for a district (the 1989 system) while only 11% were positive about the proportional list at the national level (Jordan as one electoral district).
It is really frustrating to read this. I cannot claim I know why such s system is being rooted in the mentality of people. Is it because it has been used for 14 yaers now and has the image of an untouchable system? is it due to fear from islamists or from a domination of Jordanians from palestinian origins in urban areas? is it the best one that suits the real cultural features of tribalism in the Jordanian society?
Maybe one possible answer can be the fact that the majority of respondents believe that the role of a deputee is to provide services to the community and not political engagement, monitoring of goverment performance and developing legislation. In the same poll around 73% of respondents thought that the tasks of the Parliament are economic and service oriented (fighting poverty, providing jobs, stopping inflation and price increases) while only 6% linked Parliament to its real constitutional role of legislation and monitoring.
We can of course blame the various governments for the lack of willingness to develop a modern and politically representative and interactive electoral law. However, it seems that the one man vote system and the service parliament image has been rooted in the Jordanian society which makes it very hard to eradicate such a conviction. Mabrouk for all conservatives and tribal leaders who worked relentlessly to reduce Jordan to a big tribe worthy of the 18th century instead of a developed and modern country.

posted by Batir Wardam in Democracy in Jordan, Elections 2007 @ 10:52 AM

Bookmark this post: KhabberDel.ici.ousDiggRedditY! MyWebGoogle Bookmarks
(7) comments


Add a Comment

On November, 13, 2007 12:06 PM , AlurduniAlhurr
from United States said:

question for you Batir,Why you always blame "the tribe" for the problems of politics and economics in Jordan ,and can the Hashamites be blamed for such predicament???

On November, 13, 2007 1:58 PM , hamede
from Jordan said:

why dont you say thanks to the gov for keeping jordan tribal country.

On November, 13, 2007 2:16 PM , batir
from Jordan said:

Hamede you are right but I think the forces that want to maintain the tribal nature are trans-governmental forces. In fact, the central government is losing power to both the private sector and privatization elite as well as to tribal elites.
Al Urduni I do not blame the tribes only but a package of causes which are more comfortable with the status quo. This includes private sector, political parties, and many others.

On November, 13, 2007 2:44 PM , Democracy is not elections said:

According to the poll 3.4 % of Jordanian think that the parliament's duty is to monitor the government and 1.7% think its duty is legestlation.

Brilliant

On November, 13, 2007 3:15 PM , masalha1
from Jordan said:

batir,
The problem is not in the one man one vote, the problem is in the distribution of the seats, its unfair when 70 thousand or so voters in one district have one seat and 70 thousand voters in another district have seven ( yes seven ) seats.
Your claim that if we have 110 districts and 110 seats will start a real war in election between tribes is not realistic, in the U.S. they go by one vote, one seat per district, however they redistrict every few years depending on the voters count in that district.
The point is if every 50 thousand Jordanians get represented by one parliament member, we will have a better representation, and a better voters distribution.

On November, 13, 2007 9:19 PM , batir
from Jordan said:

Masalha plz do not compare the USA elections to Jordan. There they have a society that votes for parties rather than personalities. In our country candidates have been attacked for the crime of approaching the "areas" in which supporters for their rivals live! This is the case for a 3 winners district so how will it end up when only one will prevail? A horror movie, I reckon!

On November, 14, 2007 4:35 PM , masalha1
from Jordan said:

c'mon Batir I know better than that, I was emphasizing on the fairness of the voters distribution, ( one man, one vote, one seat per district, for every 50 thousand Jordanian) is that impossible??
Alot of rhetoric being said about tribalism as if it is a social disease, its not, we all belong to one tribe or another, it just became a substitute for political parties, reason? 40 plus years of banning political parties, yes we misuse, abuse the system, but that did not stop the people of Mauritania from electing a parliament they can be proud of.
We can blame the tribal system for all of our miseries but we all know why the government came up with this voting system.
We have an Identity crises Sir. and unless we admit to it and deal with it we will be for the rest of our lives listening to the governments scary tactics of Jordanian and palestinians, and the last game between Faisaly and Wehdat proves my point.



Add a Comment

<<Home


Comments are not pre-approved. However, any comments including personal insults to the royal family members and insults based on Jordanian-Palestinian divisions will be deleted immediately. This is a platform for civilised dialogue, if you are not up to it go away.