Democracy and Social Media; A Workshop Series with Jordanian Influencers

With social media’s rising prevalence in almost everyone’s life, influencers have the power of shaping the opinion of wide audiences. While social media influencers are usually associated with topics around lifestyle, fashion and comedy, their influence could similarly be leveraged in the political realm. As the Parliamentary Elections in Jordan on the 10th of September 2024 are approaching, the KAS-Jordan Office and Qased Training and Empowerment have launched a tripartite workshop series. It educates Jordanian influencers about the importance, substance, and procedure of the electoral process in Jordan with the goal of eventually increasing both the awareness of and participation among youth in the upcoming elections.

The first out of three planned workshops took place in Amman on 29th of June 2024. The initial workshop seeks to generally introduce the participating influencers into the topic of parliamentary elections and their system. Following the guests’ arrival, one of the two moderators of this session, Rashed Al Assaf from Qased, welcomed the participating influencers and especially the honorary guest H.E Musa Al Maaytah, Chairman of the Independent Election Committee (IEC).

H.E Musa Al Maaytah then gave some opening remarks which smoothly introduced the participants into the topic and importance of the upcoming elections. In his speech, he explained the electoral system with all its technicities and novelties since the reforms to it from 2022. While he stressed the significance of having a democratically elected parliament in Jordan consisting of multiple parties, he shed light on recent issues in some western countries of increasing shifts to either the far right or far left. By saying “a parliament could consist of only women, but never only men”, H.E Musa Al Maaytah highlighted the importance of female presence in political life and their participation in the parliamentary arena. He refers to the novel Quota system for women within the reformed 2022 Election Law, increasing the number of seats reserved for women to 19 seats, compared with 15 seats in the 2020 and 2016 elections.

Afterwards, Dr. Edmund Ratka, Resident Representative of KAS Jordan, also added some welcoming remarks and a thank you to the co-organizer Qased, which is a new partner for the KAS Jordan Office to operate with. Ratka’s speech was split into three main points. Firstly, he appreciated the spirit behind the electoral law over the law itself since this is what reveals Jordan’s step towards an increased civic and political participation. Secondly, he addressed the significance of social media since this is the place where you can find the people in modern days. Lastly, Ratka agreed with H.E Musa Al Maaytah in that the Political Party System in many states is in crisis, calling for new ways of organizing countries democratically. Therefore, he displayed curiosity about and hope for Jordan’s gradual political modernization processes in the upcoming years.

The inspiring words of both Al Maaytah and Ratka triggered several questions and comments about the upcoming elections among the participants. H.E. Al Maaytah listened to them and responded to any concerns. “How can I and my followers trust the running parliamentarians that they will actually do what they promised to during their election campaign?”, “What about the rumors of ballot boxes being changed and manipulated?”, “How can I convince my followers to vote if I myself am sceptical about parliamentarians paying people for votes?”, “I don’t think people will freely vote for their favorite party if that one is disliked by the government”. These and similar issues were actively discussed between the influencers and the IEC representative H.E Musa Al Maaytah in the first part of the workshop.

In the second half of the workshop the trainer Dr. Issa Al Tarawneh (IEC) mapped out in detail the technicities of the upcoming elections. He explained to the Influencers, who is eligible to vote, when to vote and how to vote. For example, he elaborated on the dual voting system consisting of one vote for a candidate of the local list and one vote for a party from the general national list. To apply the freshly gained theoretical knowledge, the influencers had the opportunity to simulate giving a vote. Therefore, the workshop provided ballot boxes, election sheets and election staff to demonstrate the influencers how the day of elections will look like in practice. Everyone seemed to enjoy this on-hands experience which solved many technical questions among the participants.

Due to the reliable and verified information the workshop provided the influencers with, their future political presence on social media can be assumed to serve as a counterweight to fake news or misleading information. Thus, as soon as more and more young followers will hear about and understand the upcoming parliamentary elections, we hope to see an improved overall democratic participation and awareness among Jordanians generally, and, a higher voter turnout in the 2024 Parliamentary Elections specifically.

The next two workshops will continue the efforts and strategies of the first workshop by furtherly raising the influencers’ awareness and improving their understanding of Jordan’s voting and political system. This project is part of the broader efforts of KAS Jordan to increase Jordanians’ awareness of and engagement in political processes. Especially in view of the upcoming Parliamentary Elections, which historically suffer from a low voter turnout, KAS Jordan aims to efficiently contribute to the vision of his majesty King Abdullah II of political modernization by politically activating different branches of Jordanian society through such workshops.