Jordan sets September 10 as date for parliamentary elections

Current parliament started four-year cycle in 2020

Jordan's King Abdullah has instructed officials to make 'the election process a success'. Reuters

Jordanian authorities have set September 10 as the date for the country's parliamentary elections, an official said on Wednesday.

Mousa Al Maayta, head of the country's elections commission, said King Abdullah had instructed officials to make "the election process a success and apply the law with all honesty and transparency".

The king holds all significant powers in Jordan, which is home to 10 million people. The current parliament started its four-year cycle in December 2020.

The elections will be the first since a new law was passed in 2022 that allows some candidates to run for parliament across districts, if they belong to political parties.

The change was seen widely as an attempt by the king to encourage the formation of more political parties, without affecting his powers.

The 130-member parliament is comprised mostly of deputies who belong to tribes present in what became the British Protectorate of Transjordan in 1921.

The population of Jordan has since been augmented by mass arrivals of refugees and emigres, mainly from Palestine but also Iraq, Syria and other countries.

For decades, a main role for the Hashemite monarchy has been maintaining the balance between the various ethnic and tribal groups in the country.

Turnout in the last parliamentary election in 2020 was 30 per cent, compared with 36 per cent in 2016, according to official figures.