Jordan's opposition, which boycotted Wednesday's election, shed doubt on the 44-percent turnout announced by the government and alleged vote buying marred the polls.

"The turnout is very weak. The figures announced by the government are not accurate. The accurate turnout was around 16.7 at 3:00 pm (1200 GMT)," the Muslim Brotherhood said in a statement.

Jordan on Wednesday voted in a parliamentary poll snubbed by Islamists who alleged vote buying and shed doubt on turnout figures, slamming as illegitimate what is likely to be an opposition-free body.

The Independent Election Commission announced a turnout of 47 percent of the registered electorate of 2.3 million before polling stations were due to close at 1600 GMT.

Jordanians skeptical about the outcome of a January 23 legislative election say they will not vote as they are fed up with the empty promises and failures of past parliaments.

Regular Arab Spring-inspired protests over the past two years have demanded sweeping political and economic reform, including more jobs and the elimination of poverty and corruption.

Jordanians go the polls on Wednesday, but an Islamist boycott is expected to produce a toothless parliament that is unlikely to bring real reform, leaving the country in political uncertainty.

Jordan has high hopes for the election, seeking to turn it into the pivot of a reform process aimed at fending off protests inspired by Arab Spring revolts that have toppled four regimes.

Some 2,000 protesters including Islamists, youths and leftists held a sit-in the Jordanian capital on Friday, rejecting as "cosmetic" a general election due to be staged next week.

"We reject cosmetic elections and schemes against our demands for reform," read a banner carried by the demonstrators in Jabal Hussein, close to central Amman.

Iraq will re-open two border points to Jordan and Syria, more than a week after they were shut due to rallies blocking the main route linking Baghdad to the two countries, an official said Thursday.

The Trebil crossing, the only checkpoint linking Iraq to Jordan, and the al-Walid crossing, Iraq's southernmost checkpoint along its border with Syria, will open from 6:00 am (0300 GMT) on Friday, according to Mohammed Fathi, a spokesman for the provincial government of the western Iraqi province of Anbar.

A Jordanian woman has died of swine flu in the second such death in a week, Health Minister Abdullatif Wreikat said on Sunday.

"The woman, who was in her forties, was taken to hospital last Sunday, suffering from pneumonia," Wreikat told the official news agency Petra.

Israel's defense ministry has published plans for 170 new housing units and another 84 guest rooms in the West Bank settlement of Rotem in the Jordan Valley, anti-settlement activists said on Sunday.

The settlement itself previously received government approval, but no building plan was set out, according to Hagit Ofran of the Peace Now organization.

The United Nations appealed on Thursday for urgent aid to help thousands of Syrian refugees in a Jordanian camp who are battling mud, water and freezing temperatures in the worst winter storm in a decade.

"The resources we raised in 2012 have been exhausted, and no fresh funds have come for this year. We urgently appeal to the international community and donors in general to commit fresh funding as soon as possible," U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) Jordan representative, Dominique Hyde said in a statement.

Iraq will close its border with Jordan on Wednesday due to anti-government protests that have blocked the main highway linking the two countries, a military official said.

"We received orders from the defense ministry to close the border because of demonstrations that continue to block the motorway," the official said on Tuesday.