Elections commissioners to supervise polls over four regions

The Independent Elections Commission (IEC) on Wednesday said it decided to divide the Kingdom into four regions, appointing commissioners in each area to ensure better management of the electoral process. The four regions are the capital, the central, northern and southern regions. IEC President Abdul Ilah Khatib will supervise the work of each commissioner, who will manage all election-related efforts and respond to the requests of international and local observers who will monitor the polls, slated for early next year. On Wednesday, voters who registered for the upcoming elections reached 1.96 million, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, quoted IEC Spokesperson Hussein Bani Hani as saying. Bani Hani said 23,130 voters registered on Wednesday. The registration process concludes on October 15, with the number of registered voters expected to cross the two million mark. An average of 36,000 Jordanians register daily, according to IEC figures. Official figures indicate the number of eligible voters in the Kingdom stands at around three million. A study released earlier this week and included 2,990 Jordanians over 18 found that over half of them will take part in the parliamentary elections. Over 56 per cent of respondents said they will participate in the polls, while 37.5 per cent said they will not vote, according to the study, conducted in mid-September by the University of Jordan’s Centre for Strategic Studies.