President Mubarak votes in Egyptian parliamentary election (AP)
Recent elections in Jordan and Egypt have taken center stage. On November 9, Jordan held parliamentary elections where nearly 53 percent of eligible voters turned out to vote. Opposition parties fared poorly in the elections, some of which boycotted the elections in response to the passing of a new election law in May. The law, which created a new districting system, led some candidates with fewer votes to gain a seat in Parliament while others with higher vote totals in the same district did not gain a seat. There were select incidents of violence during the election including one death and several injuries. For the first time outside observers were allowed to monitor the elections. National Democratic Institute commented that “[the] elections showed a clear improvement over the nation’s 2007 polls, although a number of structural shortcomings and other problems should be addressed for future elections.”
Egyptian parliamentary elections were held on November 28. In the weeks before the vote, more than 1,200 Muslim Brotherhood supporters were arrested and party rallies were broken up and party candidates were banned from electoral lists. Opposition parties decried the elections for being marred with fraud and corruption, and said the election results were invalid. International observers and some local Egyptian groups were barred from monitoring the elections. Initial results showed the ruling National Democratic Party winning 209 of 508 seats while the Brotherhood did not secure any seats targeted by their 130 candidates. Runoff elections are scheduled for December 5 for seats where one candidate did not gain 50 percent of the vote.
For more information on top officials in the Egyptian and Jordanian governments, please see Middle East Bulletin (MEB) Background Basics (here and here).
