Women experience in elections ‘positive’ overall — SIGI

AMMAN –– The overall experience of women in the latest elections, whether as voters or candidates, was “positive”, despite some shortcomings related to legal loopholes, according to a coalition tasked with monitoring the elections from a gender perspective.

“Ain” — an alliance established under the Sisterhood Is Global Institute/Jordan (SIGI) — recorded some breaches that had “no major impact on the electoral process, but should be cited in order to be avoided in the next elections”, according to SIGI President Asma Khader. 

At a press conference on Thursday, she noted that the infringements were related to the “electoral silence”, which many breached thus affecting the course of the elections.

“Women abided by the law, whereas many of their male peers did not, which is unfair. The law should be applied to all or the electoral silence rule should be abolished if it cannot be implemented,” she said.

On the other hand, 66 women won seats at the local councils by acclamation because no women run in their respective councils. 

“These women are automatically deprived of running for the municipal or governorate councils because they were already appointed in the local constituencies,” charged Khader, adding that no woman was elected as a president of the municipal councils and that only two made it to the governorate councils’ presidency. 

With a turnout in the elections reaching 31.7 per cent, she cited the Independent Elections Commission’s (IEC) figures which showed that 48 per cent of women voted in the elections despite accounting for 53 per cent of the 4.1 million citizens eligible to cast their votes. 

“We noticed that a lot of women headed to the ballot in the evening during the elections day and this has resulted in an overall good turnout among them,” Khader added.

According to the Ain observations, a “huge” number of women won in remote areas, such as Sahab, Duleil, Umm Qais and Tafileh, with some outperforming their male rivals in some councils. 

“We should also note that the promotional campaigns of women were weaker than those of men due to the lack of support and resources,” the SIGI president highlighted. 

The Ain observers monitored the ballots in four regions; Amman, Zarqa, Balqa and Ajloun and noticed a number of breaches in to the organisation.

The violations were mainly related to the lack of umbrellas and seats in the outdoor areas, “bad” distribution of the ballot boxes and chaos resulting from overcrowdings.

“Around 85 per cent of the voting stations were equipped for people with disabilities, but some of them had the ballot boxes in upper floors, which also affected the ability of elderly citizens to cast their votes,” Khader said.

Ain is part of the “Empowerment for Leadership” programme, implemented by SIGI in cooperation with 7iber.com and Hivos International. 

The coalition comprises of more than 40 local networks and NGOs.