Ammon News - From Wael AlJaraisheh and Mohammad Habahbeh

AMMONNEWS - President of the Independent Elections Commission Abdul Ilah Khatib said that the two-vote system was carried out on Wednesday for the first time in Jordan, causing a major delay in announcing the final results.

In a press conference held at the Royal Cultural Center, Khatib said that the voting process was smooth, but the ballot sorting and counting process was much more difficult because the two-vote system is a new experience for Jordanians and took longer to sort and count.

The delay came in an effort from IEC to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the final results, Khatib noted, adding that limited violations were reported during the voting process.

On reports that doubted the need for delaying announcing final results, Khatib denied that the independent election body faced any pressures from outside forces, stressing that all IEC members enjoy autonomy and impartiality.

"The measures that were followed gave us full freedom, it is more important to practice our right and measures put to prepare for continuing in the future to maintain secret ballot and freedom of voting," Khatib said during the press conference.

Khatib criticized media outlets for what they considered "violations during electoral process," but stressed that the implementation measures are in need of improvement.

Elections cadres were trained prior to the elections and have dealt with the measures in a professional manner, Khatib added, noting that in some countries the process takes even longer.

He said that the Special IEC Commission, a committee of 5-IEC members, was formed to scrutinize the results of the National Lists and the Quota seats, and could not announce the final results before receiving final statements from election committees of ballot boxes in 75 different districts.

IEC spokesperson Hussein Bani Hani is expected to announce the final results for local districts.

IEC will announce the final results of winners in both the national lists and local districts, in addition to announcing winners of the women's quota, which is allocated 15 seats out of a total of 150-seats in the 17th Lower House of Parliament.

The Special IEC Commission delegated with scrutinizing the initial results of the parliamentary elections has concluded sorting ballots of the National Lists, allocated 27 seats out of the 150-member Lower House of Parliament.

The Commission is expected to announce the results of the national lists later on Thursday evening.

In a press conference Thursday evening, Spokesperson of the Independent Elections Commission Hussein Bani Hani said that the winners of the national list seats and women's quota will be announced by the IEC Commission Council.

IEC formed a 5-member special committee to scrutinize the initial results of local parliamentary districts in accordance with Article 50 of the 2012 Elections Law.

IEC President Abdul Ilah Khatib said that the IEC recognizes the importance of announcing the final results to the public, but is keen to announce accurate results.

Khatib said in a press conference on Thursday that the delay in announcing the final election results is due to the large number of national lists (61), in 4,069 ballot boxes dedicated to national lists, in addition to the ballot counting of local districts and special quotas.

He noted that 29 announcements, out of a total 8,128 announcement by electoral and ballot sorting committees were not entered into the electronic system, causing a delay in issuing the final results.

The results of ballot boxes not entered into the electronic system were identified and its results scrutinized to ensure the results match the paper results in the database.