On January 23, 2013 elections were held for the seventeenth Jordanian parliament, and some 1,475 candidates competed for 150 parliamentary seats. Of a total population of 6.2 million, 3.3 million Jordanians are eligible to vote, and of these, 2.3 million were registered. Voter turnout indicated that 1.27 million Jordanians, some 56.7 percent of those registered, exercised their right to vote, an increase of some 4 percent over the 2010 elections. Attempts by the palace to engage the Muslim Brotherhood in dialogue prior to the elections were unsuccessful, and the movement called for a boycott of the elections.
