'Election commission deals with minor violations'

AMMAN — The Independent Election Commission (IEC) has dealt with a number of complaints and violations observed in polling centres in the first few hours of the voting process, and referred some to the concerned authorities.

IEC President Khaled Kalaldeh said there were reports of gun acquisition in a voting centre, while some screens stopped working for less than one minute and some ballots used for voting were reported to be forged.

“We dealt with all these complaints,” Kalaldeh said at a press conference on Tuesday at noon.

The official also noted that there was an intentional disruption of Internet connection at a centre. The issue was resolved and the case was referred to security agencies for further investigation.

Kalaldeh also explained that the IEC has backup Internet servers and laptops to be used in case of any disruption in the main Internet network.

Voting for the parliamentary elections started across the Kingdom at 7am and will continue until 7pm. 

The number of eligible voters stands at 4,130,145, according to the IEC.

A total of 74,000 employees are working at polling stations around the Kingdom.