Jordan elections see Islamist gains : NPR

AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan’s Islamist opposition made the biggest gains of any opposition party in parliamentary elections held this week, winning one-fifth of the seats amid increasing anger against Israel over the war in Gaza.

The Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, is now the single biggest opposition bloc in the 138-member parliament. The legislative body has limited power, and will continue to be dominated by pro-government and tribal political groups.

The IAF’s showing in the election has been widely watched as a gauge of whether the increased support for Hamas, which is at war with Israel, would translate into more seats for the Brotherhood-linked party in Jordan and more influence for Islamist parties in other countries.

Voting turnout was relatively low — an average of 32% across the country. The percentage of voters going to the polls was much higher in tribal areas and much lower in the capital Amman.

Murad Adailah, shown here in an interview with Reuters in Amman, leads Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, which stills operates in Jordan but is not allowed to directly field parliamentary candidates. Many Arab rulers have banned the Muslim Brotherhood, fearing threats to their hereditary power and to more secular political agendas.

Jehad Shelbak/Reuters

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Jehad Shelbak/Reuters

Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood leader Murad Adailah told Reuters the IAF victory was a “popular referendum” endorsing support for Hamas and its allies and rejection of the 1994 peace treaty between Jordan and Israel.

Jordan’s highest court dissolved the Muslim Brotherhood organization four years ago, citing failure to comply with registration laws. The Brotherhood stills operates in Jordan but is not allowed to directly field parliamentary candidates. Many Arab rulers have banned the Brotherhood, fearing threats to their hereditary power and to more secular political agendas.

Jordan’s monarchy has tried to balance legislative and judicial moves to limit the power of the Brotherhood while allowing its supporters some free expression. At protests after Friday prayers, Brotherhood speakers regularly lead chants of “we are all Hamas” and call for Jordan to break its peace treaty with Israel.

The United States, Jordan’s main foreign donor, has designated Hamas a terrorist organization.

Jordan signed its 1994 peace treaty with neighboring Israel under the late King Hussein, becoming the second country to do so after Egypt. A majority of Jordan’s population is originally Palestinian, descendants of families who fled or were forced from their homes in the war in 1948, the year Israel was created — and in subsequent wars, and were never allowed back.

Anger has grown along with the death toll in Gaza, where the health ministry says more than 40,000 people, many of them women and children, have been killed in Israeli attacks. Israel says it needs to destroy Hamas after Hamas militants led a cross-border attack last October that Israeli authorities say killed roughly 1,200 people.

Electoral posters are displayed in a street in Amman in early September, ahead of the parliamentary election.

Khalil Mazraawi/AFP via Getty Images

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Khalil Mazraawi/AFP via Getty Images

Along with appealing to Jordanians enraged over Israeli attacks in Gaza and the West Bank, the IAF managed to form alliances to appeal to a wider group of voters than its traditional urban conservative Muslim base and successfully fielded candidates including tribal leaders and Christians. 

Jordan is a constitutional monarchy and King Abdullah II implemented electoral reforms two years ago aimed at encouraging the role of political parties as a step toward greater democratization. The new laws also increased the number of seats for women and lowered the age at which candidates can run from 30 to 25.

The king still appoints government leaders and can dissolve parliament, which introduces and passes laws and has the ability to force a government resignation through a no-confidence vote.

Jordan, a resource-poor country, has been hit particularly hard by the economic fallout of the Gaza war. Tourism, one of the country’s main sectors, has plummeted and unemployment, while officially about 22% of the working population, is believed to be much higher.

The head of European Union election mission, Željana Zovko, praised Jordan for succeeding in holding elections as scheduled, despite the ongoing turmoil in the region.