Jordan plans digital ID for voter verification in next election

Jordan’s Independent Elections Commission (IEC) has announced that efforts are being deployed to make the national digital ID acceptable for voter verification in the country’s next elections.

The IEC Chairman, Musa Maaytah, disclosed the information recently during a meeting, at a time when the country is seeing progress in digital government service delivery with more than 1,500 government services now accessible digitally.

As Jordan Times reports, the digital ID will be used through the Sanad platform as the IEC looks to ease up the voting process.

According to Maaytah, discussions between the IEC, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurs, and the Civil Status and Passport Department are ongoing, and the move is not only expected to facilitate voter verification, but also advance the government’s broader objectives of expanding its digital government program.

Going by the plan, each registered voter will have their digital identity information available to an IEC agent at a polling station via the Sanad platform for verification on election day. At least 1.4 million persons have already obtained a digital ID in Jordan via the Sanad which is a unified digital ID entry point for access to all government services integrated with IrisGuard biometrics.

Apart from using digital ID for verification, the IEC Chair also announced that there are plans to completely overhaul the electoral process by putting an end to paperwork and ensuring that the entire chain is digitized by the time the country holds its next parliamentary elections.

Constitutionally, the next parliamentary elections in Jordan are expected in 2028, except extraordinary circumstances occur in-between.

Maaytah said that digitizing the electoral process will “hopefully work to ensure more transparency and integrity of the election process and will speed up the voting and result procedure.”

Digital government services expanding

The plan to integrate digital ID with the electoral system is being discussed at a time when Jordan is witnessing an upsurge in its digital transformation drive.

The 2024 annual report which details the country’s 2023-2025 Economic Modernization Vision indicates an impressively growing national digital government ecosystem, with 64 percent of all government services already digitized.

The digitization of services matches up with efforts the country is making to expand its digital public infrastructure and create an atmosphere in which access to public services is as easy as ABC. As part of those efforts, the government recently opened four more service centers to facilitate access to different government offerings.

In line with its digital transformation ambitions, Jordan is also factoring in digital cooperation with regional partners, which is what is being highlighted at the Digital Cooperation and Development Forum 2025 which the country’s Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship Minister launched this week.

The two-day event served as an opportunity for Digital Economy Minister Sami Smeirat, share how Jordan can strengthen its partnerships ecosystem and expand avenues for new opportunities as the country carries on with its digital transformation agenda.

A report published recently disclosed that while Jordan is making inexorable efforts to implement its digital public infrastructure, access to digital services remains low, requiring the need for more proactive action across different areas.

Jordan has collaboration from Japan on its DPI initiative.

Article Topics

digital economy  |  digital government  |  digital identity  |  digital public infrastructure  |  elections  |  Jordan  |  Sanad  |  voter registration