(MENAFN- Alghad Newspaper)
In every way possible, the State sought to hold a successful municipality and local elections, in as civil a way as possible, unflawed and untainted. No effort was spared in the period leading up to the day of the elections, even during, by the Independent Elections Commission (IEC), or any other official body, for that matter.
All to rise to the expectations and aspirations of the people.
It only proves that the government has taken itself seriously enough to ensure the integrity of the electoral process is not violated, to change the public perception of the elections.
For years now, if not decades, Jordanians have carried around with them, a troubling, but deep conviction that all and any elections in Jordan are simply manipulated and forged.
In truth, the Tuesday polls were significantly clean.
There are no major citations or suspicions of manipulation or interference, except for this nasty business in Muwaqqar.
For two years in a row, 2016 and 2017, violations in the Muwaqqar district, South of Amman, have stolen the thunder of the elections.
During the Parliamentary Representative Elections, mobs there broke into the polling centres to steal and smash ballot boxes.
The fate of the boxes they stole remain a mystery till this very day.
On the 15th of August, 2017, the same infringement against the state and the citizens took place, in the same district, and likely by the same people.
This time, they did not only smash or steal the boxes, they went beyond that to actually detaining the head of the IEC polling committee in Um Batma.
This outrageous crime casts a long, long shadow over the integrity and credibility of these Municipality and Decentralised Elections. Especially since it has happened before, in the same district, as we said, and no one answered from this assault against our country.
It goes without saying, that such an act is an onslaught against Jordan, the nation, and not just the elections and its reputation.
The difference between the two situations is that in the prior instance, last year, the state did not punish the vandals by scrapping the poll results.
Instead, they just let them be.
Naturally, when a crime goes unpunished, it we happen again, and again.
Anyone who undermines the very authority, integrity, power, and credibility of the state, so loosely, and goes unpunished, will come to think they can do whatever they want.
Of course, for who's there to stop him, if not the state itself?
This time, the entirety of the districts poll results have been scrapped, both as punishment and a necessary measure of integrity.
Still, the videos of the ballot tampering and the members of the polling committees under assault only support the public's perception of the state, or rather the distrust.
Needless to say, distrust has already gotten to an extremely dangerous level.
It only reinforces the conviction that elections in Jordan are indeed subject to interference and manipulation.
More so, so many think now they can challenge the State and undermine the law without punishment!
Witnesses and reports confirm that the supporters of one of the candidates stormed into three polling centres in the South of Amman. They held members of the committees there hostage, and smashed the ballot boxes, before detaining the head of one of the committees.
Honestly, the failure lies not in that this has happened, per se, but that in that it has happened again.
The major fault lies in that the state was unable to prevent the reoccurrence of the same event, in the same district. Despite the public discontent the first time it happened, and the media storm, and warnings that it may happen again this time!
After the Muwaqqar incident, last year, in the Central Badia, the district was categorised as a hot pocket, for upcoming elections.
Yet, the government couldn't stop it from happening again.
The point here is that the Muwaqqar events are an assault against the very authority of the state.
In broad daylight, right under the noses of the police and law enforcement, the mobs thought they can perhaps do it again, as they did the first time. They thought they can do their bid and go unquestioned.
They weren't though.
But the scrapping of the polls is only the beginning of a long quest to identify and find the perpetrators against the state, and bring them to justice.
Eventually, violations in the overall were mostly individual, according to the monitoring bodies, and vote purchasing was insignificantly minimal.
These events, however, unfortunate as they are, remind us that there is still a lot to be done to remedy the readiness of the few to undermine the state institution. There are those who actually think they are above the law.
What happened in Muwaqqar is outrageous and unacceptable any way you put it.
Such disrespect for the law and the state must be addressed immediately, and not to be underestimated.
It is an infringement and an onslaught against the entirety of the state, the nation.
More so, it is an attack against Jordanians and our hopes to arrive at the rule and state of law and justice.
This article is an edited translation of the Arabic version, published by AlGhad.
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