Jordanians are voting in parliamentary elections boycotted by the Muslim Brotherhood, which says the electoral system is rigged in favor of rural tribal areas and against the urban poor.

The Brotherhood and the National Reform Front of former prime minister and intelligence chief Ahmad Obeidat are staying away from the polls, which opened for 12 hours from 7:00 am (04:00 GMT) on Wednesday.

Around 2.3 million Jordanians are eligible to vote at 1,484 polling stations, choosing from 1,425 candidates, vying for a four-year term in the 150-seat lower house of parliament.

Wednesday's elections are based on a new electoral framework in which for the first time parliamentarians, not the king, will choose the prime minister.

The government is touting the polls as a milestone in a gradual process of bringing greater democracy, but the opposition says King Abdullah's moves do not go far or fast enough to end his monopoly on power.

The Muslim Brotherhood is the single most popular party in Jordan, with strong support in cities, especially among poorer Palestinians who live there. Four smaller parties, including communists and Arab nationalists, are also boycotting the vote.

The boycott has reduced the election to a contest between tribal leaders, establishment figures and businessmen, with just a few of the near 1,500 candidates running for recognized parties.

'Sham election'

The result might hand more power to the tribal figures who are keen on maintaining costly state patronage that serves their interests but is resented by large parts of the urban poor who feel left out, politically and economically.

Sparsely populated rural and tribal constituencies, where pro-government tribes are strong, get a bigger weighting in parliament than the Palestinian-dominated poor urban constituencies where the religious conservatives find their support.

"This is a sham election whose results will only erode the credibility of the future parliament," said Zaki Bani Rusheid, deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood.

For many Jordanians, the economy is a key issue in the vote.

"We hope that the upcoming parliament will decrease the economic burden on the shoulders and on the pockets of the poor people," said Mahmoud Al-Sayyed Ahmed, an Amman resident.

The poll is held amid economic hardships, with IMF-guided austerity policies that the government was forced to adopt last year to avoid a fiscal crisis after years of using government money on a bloated public sector.

Last November, steep fuel price rises provoked sometimes violent protests.

The king has said the next steps to develop the country's democracy will be an overhaul of the political parties.

He wants to streamline Jordan's 23 small and fractured political parties into three or five coalitions based on ideology - right, left and center - for future parliamentary elections.

Muslim Brotherhood and four smaller parties boycott polls government touts as milestone in country's democracy process.

Aljazeera