(MENAFN- Jordan Times) The government on Tuesday reiterated its commitment to holding parliamentary elections before the end of the year.
Speaking to reporters, Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Samih Maaytah said the government fully respected the constitutional role of the Independent Elections Commission (IEC), which has the sole jurisdiction to set the elections date.
But, politically speaking, Maaytah said, the government was taking every measure in its legal capacity to ensure that the elections are carried out before the end of the year as His Majesty King Abdullah has called for on different occasions.
"We understand that there are some analysts and columnists who are sceptical about the ability to run the elections this year based on the number of people who have registered for the elections and the number of distributed voter identification cards," he said.
"But the number of people seeking registration has been on the rise since the holy month of Ramadan ended," Maaytah added.
"The registration deadline is on September 8; however, it can be extended under certain situations," the minister said, adding that the large turnout for registration could lead to extending the deadline until the end of September.
The government spokesperson underlined that this year's elections will be based on the new registration lists, which started from scratch unlike previous elections where the lists were based on those who already existed at the Civil Status and Passports Department's (CSPD) database.
On Monday, CSPD Director Marwan Qteishat told The Jordan Times that an average rate of 45,000 people per day were now registering at the department's offices across the Kingdom.
Since the end of Ramadan, the department has been processing an average of 4,000 to 5,000 voter applications per hour, he added.
By the end of Tuesday's working day, 443,321 eligible voters had registered for the elections, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
A total of 43,161 voters registered on Tuesday, Petra said, quoting IEC Spokesperson Hussein Bani Hani.
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