Youth walk a fine line between family ties, personal preferences when heading to polling booths

AMMAN — Many young Jordanians said that they are "forced" into voting for a relative or a candidate their parents view as worth voting for during the governorate and municipal council elections.

The Jordan Times on Tuesday interviewed a group of young Jordanians aged between 22 and 27, who mainly said that electoral processes are crucial for building stable societies in today’s world, as well as supporting sustainable development solutions to unemployment, inequality and other issues.

“Youth participation can turn out to be a successful campaign for candidates who win. All candidates told us that our demands and opinions are important, but do they really mean it?” Noor Shabsough, a Jordanian in her 20s, told The Jordan Times on Tuesday.

Today’s Jordanian youth offer broader support for candidates who have taken their campaigns to online social networks, said Shabsough, who voted for a candidate whose campaign boards she happened to see on streets, along with sponsored videos on Instagram, banners on buildings and vehicle wraps, among many other tactics.

“I hope I made the right choice,” she said, adding: "One of the things the candidate promised is to support youth, so we will see."

The case is a bit different for Noor Al Manaseer, a 23-year-old Jordanian who lives in the Marj Al Hamam area.

She told The Jordan Times during an interview that her father took her to the polling station on Tuesday to vote for a candidate from her family.

 “The candidate I voted for today made a lot of positive changes in Marj Al Hamam,” she said. “He helped implement substantial repairs in the area, helped families and small-business owners, but most importantly he has the same family name as I do."

She added that she and her younger brother “have to continue their parents' voting traditions", meaning that, although they have their own opinions on the candidates’ electoral programmes, "the priority is always for the family". 

Qusai D., a 22-year-old Jordanian said, “I voted for a young candidate. He is in his early 30s I guess. I believe he deserves a yes vote, because he is honest, responsive and acts as a force for positive change".

He added that no one has forced him to vote for anyone. 

Qusai noted that, although many of his cousins are candidates, he chose to vote for the candidate with a “promising programme”. 

Meanwhile, Hamzah Emad, a young Jordanian who voted for the first time, took a wait-and-see attitude, as he said he “does not have enough knowledge about elections”, but he "wanted to participate with the aim of being a part of creating change".

“We need more voter education campaigns, whether only for the young or for all people,” he said, adding that he went with his father and uncles and voted for the same candidate.

Jordan has one of the youngest populations in the world, with 63 per cent of its population under the age of 30, according to UNICEF. 

As of 2020, 28 per cent of the population in Jordan were aged between 16 and 30 years old.