Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Jordanians started heading to polling stations today at 7:00am to choose the Kingdom's 18th parliament in elections.

According to the Independent Election commission (IEC) figures, over 4.13 million Jordanians are registered to vote in the polling that will be monitored by 14,000 local observers and some 676 international observers in addition to 1,700 journalists who have registered to cover the elections.

A total of 226 lists consisting of 1,252 candidates are competing to win the 130 seats of the Lower House, 252 of whom are women.

The law reduced the Lower House seats from 150 to 130, designating 15 seats for the women’s quota.

The Kingdom is divided into 23 electoral districts, with five for Amman, four for Irbid and two districts for Zarqa governorate. The other governorates are each represented as an electoral district, including the three Badia constituencies.

Around 80,000 employees will administrate the process in all the Kingdom's 23 constituencies, while the Gendarmerie Department will deploy 50,000 of its personnel to ensure security on the voting day.

For the election day, 10,000 young volunteers will be available at polling stations to help voters, while there will be 74,000 official employees involved in administering the polls, according to the IEC.

The number of ballot boxes stand at 4,883 while the number of ballot centers in all governorates across the Kingdom reaches 1,483.

All candidates including Circassians, Chechen and Christian candidates can only stand for election through lists as running individually is not permitted, according to the Elections Law.

The Amman Governorate has five electoral districts; the first one is allocated five seats while the second is allocated six seats.

The capital’s third electoral district has six seats, including one Christian and one Circassian /Chechen, while the fourth has been designated four seats.

Amman's fifth constituency is allocated seven seats at the House, one of which is designated for a Circassian/Chechen representative.

As for the northern Irbid Governorate, it is divided into four electoral districts. Six seats are allocated for the first district, while four seats are allocated for the second constituency.

The third electoral district has four seats, one of which is designated for a Christian, while the fourth district has five seats.

Zarqa Governorate was divided into two districts. Eight seats were allocated for the first district including one seat for Circassians /Chechens and one seat for Christians and four for the second.

Al Balqa Governorate is dealt with as one district with 10 parliamentary seats, including two for Christians.
Ten seats are also allocated for Karak Governorate including two seats for Christians, and it will be dealt with as one constituency, excluding South Badia.

Maan Governorate is one electoral district with four seats covering Maan, Shaoubak, and Petra, excluding South Badia. Mafraq is one constituency with four seats and covers all districts in the governorate, excluding North Badia.

Each of Tafileh, Ajloun, Jerash and Madaba is set as one constituency and allocated four seats, excluding Central Badia in the case of Madaba and South Badia in Tafileh. Aqaba is also one constituency with three seats. Each of the Badia’s three districts is given three seats.