In Jordan polls, every vote has its price

Rather than ideology, charisma or even religious devotion, many Jordanians say they have found a more “impartial” measure to select their next parliamentarians: tthe size of their pocketbooks “Whoever is the highest bidder has my vote,” said Mohammed Hassan, a 28-year-old Amman engineer.

Growing voter apathy and an economic downturn have created a “perfect storm” in Jordan, observers say, as candidates rush to sway voters with cash and other bribes in the lead-up to Wednesday’s polls. Despite Amman’s efforts to curb the practice, the influx of political cash continues to capture headlines and sway votes, landing candidates in prison and placing the legitimacy of the country’s first post-Arab Spring polls in jeopardy.

The use of cash to influence voters is not new to Jordan, where instances of vote buying marred the results of polls in 2007 and 2010. Yet with the absence of opposition parties – the Muslim Brotherhood has moved to boycott the elections – observers say “vote-selling” has become the norm rather than the exception in 2013.

“With the lack of choices at the ballot box, the temptation to sell your vote away is much stronger this time,” said Musa Shteiwi, head of the University of Jordan Centre for Strategic Studies. Jordanian voters allegedly stand much to gain by their pre-election day transactions.

According to voters and candidates, the average “price” of a vote ranges between 50 and 75 dollars in urban centres such as Amman and Zarqa. It goes up to 1,500 dollars in rural districts, where candidates compete over sparsely-populated electorates and must provide added incentives for voters to break tribal allegiances. “One candidate told me that if I voted for him, I would not have to work for the rest of the year,” said Othman Abu Ahmed, a 45-year-old voter in the northern Bedouin district, who says he turned down the offer.

With some wealthy independent candidates allegedly doling out millions of dollars to secure votes, candidates with even modest coffers say they have no chance to compete. “My party list raised one million dollars for our election campaign,” said Ahmed Abeido, a candidate in the southern Maan city.

“But we are facing individual candidates who spend twice that in a single night.” “Unless you are rich, there is no place for you in the Jordanian parliament.” With the reported influx in political cash, observers say much more is at stake than a level playing field. Observers say the phenomenon has given weight to the Muslim Brotherhood’s claims of “voter fraud,” with Jordan’s largest opposition group using the alleged cases to raise doubt over the legitimacy of the elections.

“The blatant influx of political money is proof that officials do not wish to see free and fair democratic elections in Jordan,” charged Zaki Bani Rsheid, deputy head of the Brotherhood. Authorities are working to enforce recent amendments to the elections law, which for the first time hands down a three to seven year prison term for “the use of cash to influence voters.”

The country’s recently-established independent electoral commission has referred 20 citizens and seven candidates to the judiciary for alleged voter fraud this month alone, leading to this week’s high-profile arrests of centrist National Union Party head Mohammed Khushman and former parliamentarian Ahmed Safadi. Officials say the recent crackdown aims to rebuild public confidence in an electoral process which in previous years has been marred by accusations of vote-rigging and voter intimidation.

“The government is doing everything it can to ensure these elections are clean, fair with indisputable results, whatever they may be,” said Samih Maaytah, a government spokesman. “But when it comes down to cash passing through the hands of private citizens, all we have is the law.”

With candidates devising new and ever-inventive ways to bribe voters, Jordanians say even the law has failed. Rather than cash, candidates have begun attempting to sway voters with elaborate meals, expensive gifts and even lop-sided “business arrangements.” One entrepreneurial candidate in the southern province of Karak allegedly even rented a propane gas truck and spent the better part of last week distributing heating gas to potential voters.

Jordanians say the only true measure that could dissuade them from selling their vote is higher stakes at the ballot box. “We are going to continue to sell our votes away until we have a real chance to elect our governments,” said Ahmad Majali, a 42-year-old Karak resident and the campaign manager for his brother. “For that would be truly priceless,” Majali said.