Amman - Jordan's National Centre of Human Rights (NCHR) on
Tuesday cast doubt on the fairness of parliamentary elections held in
the country on November 20.
In a 23-page report, the state-funded body said several violations
were committed before and during the polling process.
'The violations of the election law itself cast heavy doubt on the
conformity of the election process in the country to international
and national standards,' the report said.
The NCHR questioned the constitutionality and the legality of the
election law, saying it was enacted in 2001 as an 'interim law' and
the successive parliaments failed to put it into serious discussion.
The country's human rights watchdog criticized the massive shift
of voters from one constituency to another on voting day and the
'discrimination' in terms of allowing certain candidates access to
electorate lists and withholding them from others.
It also cited the failure of the authorities to conduct
'deterrent' judicial proceedings against those involved in vote
buying practices and the harassment by security organs of certain
candidates and their supporters.
The NCHR blasted the previous government of Prime Minister Marouf
Bakhit for its failure to respond to requests by some 15 human rights
bodies operating in the country to monitor the elections process,
including vote casting and counting.
The coalition of non-government human rights groups decided to
refrain from monitoring the polling process, saying the supervision
scope accorded to them was insufficient to ensure the fairness of the
elections.
The NCHR's report lends credibility to the charges by the Islamic
Action Front (IAF), Jordan's largest political party, that the
elections were 'rigged' with the primary aid of curtailing the
presence of Islamists at the lower house of parliament, diplomats
said.
The IAF, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood movement,
suffered a setback in the November elections, returning only six
deputies in the new 110-member chamber, compared with 17 seats in the
previous polls of 2003.
In a previous report the NCHR also reported violations in the
country's municipal elections that were held on July 31.
© 2008 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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