47000 police deployed on eve of election day in Jordan

Up to 47,000 police officers, including 17,000 gendarmerie members, began taking up their duty early Tuesday at polling and vote-counting centres on the eve of Jordan's landmark parliamentary elections. Police departments have carried out a security survey of 1,532 voting and ballot-counting centres to ward off any hindrances that could mar the electoral process on election day on Wednesday. The Public Security Department PSD media centre said the main task of security forces is to secure access to polling and vote-counting stations and guard their periphery in order to "ensure the entry of a voter to the ballot box to cast his/her vote without any glitches." "Security bodies will make sure nothing illegal runs inside or outside a centre," it said in a statement, adding that police would also ensure a smooth traffic outside polling centres and that foot patrols will be staged on the periphery of voting centres. The PSD statement said police forces will carry out orders by Independent Election Commission IEC staff and heads of electoral committees concerning malpractices and take judicial disciplinary measures against violators. Security bodies will also coordinate with IEC personnel to facilitate the job of the media and international and local observers in order to perform their tasks in a free and transparent fashion, it added. Since the elections date was set, the PSD statement said, the department had drawn up a three-phased master security plan starting with registration through to the campaigning period and ending up with election day and the announcement of final results. It called upon citizens to heed security instructions to guarantee a smooth election, telling the public that police at polling centres are there for their safety and to protect their constitutional right to vote.