Elections in Jordan are for the lower house, known as the House of Representatives, of the bicameral parliament of Jordan, as well as for local elections. They take place within a political system where the King has extensive legislative and executive powers, retaining ultimate political control. The Prime Minister is selected by the King, the PM is then free to choose his own Cabinet. The parliament has quotas: three seats for Circassians and Chechens, nine for Christians and fifteen for women. The electoral system favours rural tribes and those of East Bank origin over urban areas that are primarily inhabited by those of Palestinian descent.
The first general election was held during the Emirate of Transjordan in 1929. Even after Jordan gained independence in 1946, British influence caused elections to be held under block voting. Just three months into an elected government experiment in 1956, the former King Hussein then dismissed that government, declaring martial law and banning political parties. This lasted until general elections were reintroduced in 1989 after unrest over price hikes spread in southern Jordan. The 1989 general election under block voting saw opposition Islamist parties win 22 out of 80 seats in the House of Representatives. The electoral system was then changed in 1992 to a single non-transferable vote system, which became known as “one-man one-vote”, in order to suppress Islamist representation. Opposition parties back then including the Muslim Brotherhood’s Islamic Action Front (IAF) often boycotted elections due to the new law, even though political parties were relegalized and martial law was lifted.
The 2011–12 Jordanian protests that occurred as part of the Arab Spring led to calls for political reform. Some reforms were introduced prior to the 2013 general election, which included the creation of an Independent Electoral Commission. The changes were however deemed insufficient by many opposition parties, and they continued their boycott. Large-scale reforms were put into place for the 2016 general election and the 2017 local elections. Opposition parties including the IAF have ended their boycott of the elections in 2016 after proportional representation was introduced, and together with their allies managed to win 16 seats out of 130, after they were expecting 20-30 seats. Proportional representation is seen as the first step toward establishing parliamentary governments in which parliamentary blocs, instead of the king, choose the prime minister.
Political system
thumb|[[1929 Transjordanian general election|First general election in Jordan's history was held on 2 April 1929.]]
Compared to other Arab monarchies, Jordan is relatively pluralistic, with a tolerance for political and social opposition. Jordan a member of international treaties obliging it to hold regular elections with appropriate preparation and implementation, and that oblige it to respect the right to vote, the right to be elected and participate in public affairs, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom of movement, and freedom of opinion. After parliament is dissolved, the constitution mandates elections be held within four months. Nonetheless, the monarchy retains ultimate political control, as it is imbued with wide executive and legislative authority, leading the King's royal court and advisers exercising more power than parliament. While in theory the military and General Intelligence Directorate (GID, a state security body) report to parliament, in practice they report to the monarchy.
The elected lower house of parliament is further constrained by an upper house of equal legislative responsibility whose members are chosen by the King.
As the election results are based on patronage rather than political alignment, parliaments is often ineffectual. Female candidates are thus often controlled by the tribes supporting them.
Some ethnic and religious minorities have quotas in parliament as well, although these minorities must run in their allocated seats if they wish to enter parliament.
While political parties remained banned, many candidates were clearly affiliated with various groups, such as the monarchy and the Muslim Brotherhood. This was not representative of the percentage of the vote, with 20% of votes for the Muslim Brotherhood winning 30% of the seats, and the 16% of seats won by independent Islamists similarly over-representative. The 60% of votes that went to pro-monarchy candidates won only 40% of the seats. This was in part due to the better organisation of Islamists, despite the lack of official party structures. Political parties were also weak due to low membership, caused by public fear of discrimination against party members. By 2003 there were 31 licensed political parties, which fell into four broad groups: Islamist, leftist, Arab nationalist, and centrist Jordanian nationalists. Despite these party memberships, candidates often still ran as independents, for fear of alienating tribal votes. While maintaining the basics of one-man one-vote, the new law changed how elections worked in multi-member districts.
In response, the King promised reforms and a move towards constitutional monarchy, and in June 2011 established a 52-member National Dialogue Committee and a 10-member Constitutional Review Council. While both were mostly full of royal loyalists, they did propose changes. In September 2011, the Council proposed 42 constitutional amendments, including ones establishing an Independent Electoral Committee. Each voter had two votes, one within their electoral district, and one for the 27 national-level seats.
The new Independent Electoral Commission was regarded as having improved electoral administration, promoting electoral transparency and ensuring ballot secrecy. The PR seats were very fractured, with the largest party being the Islamic Centrist Party which received only 114,458 (8.89%) votes leading to three votes. 18 women were elected in 2013, 15 from the quotas, two as the head of PR lists, and one as a district candidate. This was not the case in the 1989 elections, and reflected the PR experiment from the 2013 elections. There are 23 electoral districts: five in the Amman government, four in the Irbid governorate, two in the Zarqa governorate, one each for the other nine governorates, and three badia districts for the Bedouin quotas. The Circassian/Chechen and Christian quotas were included among seats assigned within the governorate districts. The female quota is divided so that there is one seat in each governorate, and one in each badia. While the division of population between districts remains imperfect, it was an improvement upon previous elections. The Muslim Brotherhood Association, which emphasises its Jordanian identity, was given official status in March 2015. Subsequent internal dissent among the original Muslim Brotherhood led to the resignation of hundreds of members. Two other splinter groups have also broken away from the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood Association leveraged its official status to launch lawsuits claiming ownership of Muslim Brotherhood property, The government also prevented a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood.
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2013
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="2" style="text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" width=400|Winners in one-man one-vote districts
! Seats
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" |Independents of various tendencies
| 123
|-
! style="text-align:left;vertical-align:top;" width=400|Parties contesting 27 proportional representation seats
! Votes
! Seats
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | Islamic Centrist Party (Al Wasat)
| style="vertical-align:top;" | 114,458
| style="vertical-align:top;" | 3
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | Stronger Jordan
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
| style="vertical-align:top;" | 2
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | The Homeland
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
| style="vertical-align:top;" | 2
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | National Union Party
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
| style="vertical-align:top;" | 2
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" | Other parties with one seat each
| style="vertical-align:top;" | 18
|-
|colspan="3" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" |
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | Registered voters
| colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" |
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | Turnout
| colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" | (57%)
|-
| colspan="3" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" |
|-
| colspan="3" style="text-align:left;" | Sources:
|}
2016
2020
2024
Electoral administration
Prior to 2013, elections were run by the Ministry of Interior.