Young candidates dominate Irbid’s northern district

NOTHERN MAZAR, Irbid — In remarkable reverse of the long-standing stereotype that politics is solely for the “wise old men”, the municipal and governorate council elections in an intensely populated northern district showed a new trend: most candidates are young. 

Out of the 75 candidates competing in the municipal and governorate councils of the five villages which make up the northern Mazar constituency in Irbid, around 40 are considerably young with some of them even under 30 years of age.   

The Jordan Times on Tuesday spoke to some of the youngest candidates who expressed “vigor and passion” to serve their people if they were elected and to voters who were unmistakably happy to see the young taking the lead.  

Ayman Al Salem, a young candidate from Dair Yousef village said: “It is time for the youth to stand up for their people and regions.”

Speaking while circled by tens of his young supporters, Salem, 29, said his motto was to serve his “young” local community, which he lamented as “being long represented by old people with decayed mentality”.

“I am absolutely not underestimating the efforts of the old generation and their achievements, but the young can better represent and serve the young,” Salem said, supporting his rationale with statistics saying the young people in his village constitute the majority of population, as they do in the rest of Jordan.

According to recent statistics, the Jordanian society is one of the youngest in the world, with people under 30 constituting around 75 per cent of the population.

“If I win my people’s confidence, I will work with my colleagues in the municipal council to establish a specialised centre that offers vocational training to the young people to help them find jobs,” Ayman added.

“During my campaign, I have always presented myself to voters as the candidate of all and not just a certain tribe or sub-tribe. This has definitely angered some of the elders, but it has also found a favourable ear with the young people.” 

The same remarks were expressed by Fares Omari, a 29-year-old municipal candidate from Habaka village who, with a daring tone, added, “For the older generation, we, the young, always meant votes.”

“In past elections, old candidates have always boasted to be there for the youth and vowed to serve them. But, after they made it to Parliament or municipalities, they turned their backs on us and proved to be either self-focused or tribal-focused,” Omari said.

Pledging relentless and raring determination to work hard if elected, Omari said that previous municipal councils have failed to make tangible development to their districts.

“Yes, it is true that municipalities have limited budgets or are maybe even bankrupt; but, with the available assets, a lot can still be done,” he stressed.

“It cannot be that the number of trees in northern Mazar region, which enjoys good climate and good annual rainfall, is sharply decreasing. It cannot be that Mazar District has no large agricultural project,” the candidate added.

“Let’s try new blood, this is my slogan,” Omari said. 

Eligible voters, some of them in their late 50s and 60s, expressed zealousness towards the young candidates, pledging support for them and their ideas.

“I have four votes and I will give two of them to the young candidates,” Ibrahim Abdulrazzaq, 58, said.

“In previous occasions, we tried the old. Let it be this time for the young generation,” Abdulrazzaq said, describing the idea of young people running the polls as “lovely” and “adding flavour” to the elections.

Ahmed Omari, 64, described the young candidates as “loyal” to their villages and people. “They [young candidates] could have moved to the capital as the majority of their peers do. Their insistence to serve their people is admirable,” he said.  

For Abdullah Tawfiq, 31, “electing a young man for the municipal councils is in a way or another like helping him find a job.”

“Most of the candidates in previous elections and in these elections are either retired or already having jobs,” the young man noted. 

According to figures by the Interior Ministry, the population density per square kilometre in northern Mazar District stands at 910.  The population of Nothern Mazar in Irbid Governorate, some 80 kilometres north of Amman, is 78427.