26 July - 1 August 2001
Issue No.544
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 26 July - 1 August 2001 Issue No.544 |
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New law unleashes discontent
Jordan's new election law and decision to postpone parliament vote has come under fire from the country's opposition. Lola Keilani reports from Amman
One day after Jordan King Abdullah's approval of a controversial new election law, authorities announced the delay of November's parliamentary elections until next year.
The new law leaves intact a voting system that staunchly favours tribal East Bank constituencies over the largely Palestinian-populated cities, which are highly politicised Islamic strongholds.
The existing so-called "one-man, one-vote" voting system, enacted in 1993, allows each eligible Jordanian voter to cast one ballot. It is opposed by Jordan's strong Islamist movement led by the Muslim Brotherhood, which boycotted the 1997 elections. In the previous election law of 1986, Jordanians could choose several candidates instead of one, which allowed for a more proportional Palestinian representation.
Changes in the new law include prohibiting candidates who hold dual nationalities from contesting the elections and reducing the voting age by one year to 18, according to a text of the bill. Parliamentary seats were hiked by 30 per cent, or 24 seats, to 104 seats to ensure a more adequate representation for densely populated cities like Amman. The capital city and home to 1.6 million people -- or 30 per cent of the population -- Amman commanded 18 seats under the previous law. It gained five more under the new law.
For the first time, the judiciary will supervise the upcoming elections, replacing the governors appointed by the interior minister to monitor the balloting.
Meanwhile, speculation has continued on when the next parliamentary elections will take place. Jordan's Deputy Prime Minister Awad Khulaifat told reporters that King Abdullah decided to postpone elections until at least early next year in order to implement regulations stated in the new elections law.
Political analysts say the elections could be postponed till next summer to avoid the election of Muslim Brotherhood members or radical deputies who have managed to consolidate their power in the wake of the Palestinian Intifada and widespread opposition to the current unpopular IMF economic reforms.
Although the new law was drafted by the cabinet and approved by King Abdullah, the prime minister has managed to shroud it with such secrecy that many key advisors to the king, who had earlier been part of a five-man committee to draft the law, heard about the final details from the press.
With a new law and no immediate parliamentary elections, Jordan is expected to live a political vacuum for a year due to the anticipated delay in holding general elections till July 2002.
"The law has been approved by His Majesty...It's a modern law that eliminates loopholes and has tough safeguards against ballot fraud," Information Minister Saleh Qallab told reporters.
Jordan's Islamist opposition have not yet declared whether they will be participating in the next elections. But Jordan's influential Muslim Brotherhood Movement criticised the new election law, saying it contains restrictions which reduces their parliamentary clout.
"The new law does not contain any substantial changes and it has retained the one-vote system, which is our main objection," said brotherhood spokesman Jamil Abu Bakr.
"With mixed feelings of disappointment and surprise, Jordanians received news of the new election law which was supposed to be both modern and progressive," editorialised Al-Majd weekly on its front page.
Several politicians in Jordan also expressed dismay with the decision to delay holding the elections, saying it will create a political vacuum and will reflect badly on the Jordanian democratic process. According to the constitution, the monarch can recall the dissolved parliament if four months pass without elections.
Political parties had earlier suggested a "quota" of 12 seats in parliament to be allocated to Jordan's political parties. Another suggestion was to have a "quota" for Jordanian women. The quota system has been part of Jordan's election system since the kingdom's inception 70 years ago, under which a quota for Christians, Bedouins and Circassians has been maintained in all of its 13 parliaments.
Activists were disappointed, however, because of official reneging on an earlier promise to give political parties and women a few seats in parliament.
According to observers, the new law might be part of the political make-up that Jordan is trying to project as a component of its democratic façade. However, it still failed to address the enigma of political representation in ratio of demographic weight that affects Jordanians of Palestinian origin, who constitute at least more than 50 per cent of the population and yet have only six per cent of the parliamentary seats.
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