ammonnews.net

Ammon News - Deputy Premier, Minister of Local Administration Tawfiq Krishan, said Tuesday that turnout was higher in rural areas than the capital as voters cast ballots to choose governorate and municipal councils across the Kingdom and members the Greater Amman Municipality Council.

Ballot boxes opened at 07:00 am for voters to elect heads and members of 100 municipal councils, 12 governorate councils and two-thirds of Amman Municipality Council's 28 members.

"We congratulate the nation on election day, which coincides with the start of the second centennial of the Jordanian state", Krishan told a joint press conference with Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Independent Election Commission, Khaled Kalaldeh.

He said voters in the governorates were motivated, but balloting was at a low point in Amman, urging voters to "honestly" choose candidates with experience and who have the competency to manage development files in governorate and municipal councils.

The minister told the press conference that the government has nothing to do with the management of the elections, which are run by the IEC, hailing the electoral body's procedures and neutrality.

Krishan said the local administration law aims to improve decentralization and separate it from municipal councils in many tasks, noting that 40 per cent of the governorate councils’ allocations are geared for development in partnership with the private sector.

For his part, Kalaldeh said the IEC will address all the observations it had received throughout the electoral process, including 35 complaints from the media.