election day!

Tuesday was election day here in Jordan. A little overview of Jordan's goverment: Jordan is a constitutional monarchy. The king and his cabinet ministers hold the executive authority, and the king signs and executes all laws, however, his veto power may be overridden by a two- thirds vote of both houses of the National Assembly. This National Legislature is split into two: the Chamber of Deputies [110 elected members] & the Senate [40 appointed members]. The cabinet is led by a Prime Minister who is appointed by the king. The 40 members of the Senate are appointed by the monarch for 4-year terms. The country's political power structure is divided along lines of tribal affiliation as opposed to party politics.

This year, there were around 800 people running for parliment seats! It seemed like every family in Jordan had a family member [or 2!] running. My host family had two uncles running, so we spent two days in Karak, a city about three hours south of Irbid. It was wonderful to see another part of the country and to partake in the exciting election day festivities. The day, as in all election days, made me think of my dad. He loves election day. He is always up earlier that usual [which is hard to believe based on how early he usually wakes up] and he's always the first one at the polls.

My host family also likes election day. Especially my host brother. Our morning begain a little later and slower then election day does for Dad. And instead of being the first at the polls, we spent the morning eating, watching election news on the TV, and having family come visit. My family here was torn over who to vote for because they were related to a couple different canidates. Throughout the two days of visiting family members and different election rallies, we constantly had to make sure we took off whatever badge or hat, or remove any sign from the car, that was given to us by a certain canidate. It all felt rather sneaky...but I guess that's what you do when you don't want to offend family.

All day the streets were croweded, and although the worst we saw were boys fighting on the streets, electon day was not so peaceful other places in Jordan. Click here to read a report a friend of mind pointed readers to in her blog.

When the polls closed around 7pm only 53% of the population voted. This number seems low to me, especially because the day was a national holiday here in Jordan, meaning most people had time off work. But after doing a [very] quick Internet search, I guess that's pretty average.

Here are some pictures from the day:

Samira and I with one of the canidates...he is the uncle of my host-sister's husband. Did you follow that?

My host-brother, Eyad, after voting. He was so excited!

Does anyone else think this canidate looks like Bush?

Posters for canidates were EVERYWHERE. This car was almost completely coved.

The Karak castle was closed becuase it was a holiday, so I attempted to break in....