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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The Public Iftaa Department on Sunday said that influencing voters' will by vote buying or providing money or briberies is religiously prohibited, stressing that voters' casting of ballots of a great responsibility and a trust.

The Iftaa (Religious Edicts) Department stressed in a statement issued on Sunday that the elections is a constitutional and religiously commendable means to chose representatives of the people, to oversee the government and legislate laws in the best interest of citizens.

The department said that it is religiously prohibited for candidates to influence the will of the voters by buying and selling votes and presenting bribes in part of their competition to win in the upcoming parliamentary elections slated to be held on January 23.

The statement noted that voters ought to chose the best candidate for the position who could carryout the responsibility and trust, and that voters must cast their ballots freely in accordance to their own will and conscience without the influence of money or gifts.

Earlier last week, leading Islamic scholars considered the buying and selling of votes in the upcoming parliamentary elections as "treason to the nation," stressing that such practices are prohibited in Islamic Shariah.

The scholars issued a fatwa announced during a press conference held at the headquarters of the Independent Elections Commission (IEC), in which they considered the practices as betrayal of trust, and are therefore un-Islamic.