Jordan’s Parliamentary Election Held For The First Time After Last Year’s Contitutional Amendment

A Jordanian woman casts her vote at a polling station during the first hours of the Jordanian Parliamentary elections, in Al-Salt, Jordan, Wednesday Jan. 23, 2013. Jordan’s monarchy has touted Wednesday’s parliamentary election as a watershed in the kingdom’s democratization. It is the first after last year’s constitutional amendments that see King Abdullah II gradually relinquishing much of his powers in running the daily affairs of the state to the legislature, although he will continue for now to set broader foreign and security policies.

Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour, center, speaks to the media after casting his vote at a polling station for the parliamentary elections, in Al-Salt, Jordan, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013. Jordanians voted Wednesday for a parliament touted to be the most powerful in the kingdom’s history, but with much of the opposition boycotting it is unclear how far the vote and its accompanying reforms will go to pacify a two-year long wave of protests. <AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon>