AMMAN — A
series of disagreements between
Jordan Engineers Association (JEA) President
Ahmad Sammarah Al-Zu’bi and several members of the central board, following a
series of clashes over the amendments to the JEA’s internal laws, climaxed
Saturday with some members accusing Zu’bi of overseeing and engaging in
irregularities, including electoral fraud, in the association elections held on
February 18.
اضافة اعلان
Engineer Maysara
Malas told
Jordan News that “the election process is supposed to happen
in secrecy, but some were seen taking photo shots of ballot papers” in an
attempt to intimidate voters, as there allegedly was “interference of external
parties in the elections to support certain lists”.
Malas also said
that the votes were cast in open space, as no separate booths were available,
and thus “no privacy”, and that “these actions are unprecedented”.
“We never witnessed
any forms of irregularities in the election process,” Malas said, stressing
that “voting is a personal matter”.
The deputy
president of the Civil Engineering Division at the JEA and a former board of
directors member,
Sary Zuaiter, told
Jordan News that the elections that
took place in the Irbid branch of JEA was “a real farce. I can tell from my
experience that freedom to elect (a representative) is non-existent.”
Zuaiter added that
“the election was supposed to be a private affair and happen quietly, but what
happened is that voters were sitting all together in one place, discussing who
they were going to vote for and some external parties forced the engineers to
vote for specific lists.”
He added that these
irregularities violate the law of the association and any election law.
“There is no longer
honest competition among members, and no longer competition for professionalism
and competence. Engineers are forced to choose specific people, regardless of
their competence or professionalism,” he said.
JEA Vice President
Fawzi Masaad told
Jordan News that there was some trouble during the
election process in Al-Salt: “Things were going fine, until a nominee started
to make trouble after he noticed that he will not win.”
Masaad added that
problems do happen during the election process as, “unfortunately, we suffer
from poor sportsmanship, and we cannot face our losses. This is life; in any
elections, there will be losers and there will be winners”.
He also said that
the elections were fair and that “we do not care about what is being said, all
we care about is to move forward and support our association and colleagues as
much as we can”.
On Friday, JEA elections were held in the branches of the
association in the governorates of Irbid, Tafileh, Ajloun, Jerash, Mafraq,
Balqa, and Zarqa. The head and members of the council were elected at these
branches, with the exception of the Jerash branch, where the council won by
acclamation.
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