In the kingdom’s first general election since the Arab spring which the government says is a key milestone in the country’s “step-by-step” process of democratization, despite the boycott. Wednesday’s elections are based on a new electoral framework in which for the first time parliamentarians will choose the prime minister, previously appointed by the crown.

The Independent Election Commission said the number of voters across the Kingdom has exceeded half a million, according to Petra news agency.

Out of a total of three million eligible voters, some 2.3 million are eligible to vote vying for a four-year term in the 150-seat lower house of parliament.

But the opposition, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, says the electoral system ensures support for the king by favoring rural tribal regions where he has great support and marginalizing urban areas where the opposition is stronger, according to Al Jazeera. The Muslim Brotherhood is the single most popular party in Jordan, with strong support in cities, especially among poorer Palestinians who live there.

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

The 2011 Arab Spring uprisings in the region set off a wave of demonstrations in Jordan, calling for reforms, but not on the scale of other uprisings that swept across the region like those in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Tunisia.