A Jordanian man votes during parliamentary elections at a polling station in al-Salt near the capital Amman on Tuesday.
Khalil Mazraawi/AFP via Getty Images
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Khalil Mazraawi/AFP via Getty Images
AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan’s Islamist opposition has made the biggest gains among opposition parties. parliamentary election held this week, winning a fifth of the seats amid growing anger towards Israel over the war in Gaza.
The Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, is currently the largest opposition bloc in the 138-member parliament. The legislature has limited powers and will continue to be dominated by pro-government and tribal political groups.
The IAF’s performance in the election is widely watched as a gauge of whether growing support for Hamas, which is at war with Israel, will translate into more seats for the Muslim Brotherhood-linked party in Jordan and more influence for Islamist parties in other countries.
Relatively low voter turnout — average 32% nationwide. Voter turnout was much higher in tribal areas and much lower in the capital Amman.
Murad Adailah, shown in an interview with Reuters in Amman, is the leader of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, which remains active in Jordan but is not allowed to directly field parliamentary candidates. Many Arab rulers have banned the Brotherhood, fearing it threatens their hereditary rule and more secular political agendas.
Jehad Shelbak/Reuters
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Jehad Shelbak/Reuters
Leader of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood Murad Adailah told Reuters The IAF’s victory was a “referendum” in favor of Hamas and its allies and rejected the 1994 peace treaty between Jordan and Israel.
Supreme Court of Jordan dissolve the Muslim Brotherhood four years ago, citing non-compliance with registration laws. The Brotherhood remains active in Jordan but is not allowed to directly field parliamentary candidates. Many Arab rulers have banned the Brotherhood, fearing a threat to their hereditary rule and more secular political agendas.
Jordan’s monarchy has tried to balance legislative and judicial moves to limit the power of the Muslim Brotherhood while still allowing its supporters freedom of expression. At the protests after Friday During prayers, Muslim Brotherhood spokesmen regularly chanted the slogan “we are all Hamas” and called on Jordan to break its peace treaty with Israel.
The United States, Jordan’s main foreign donor, has been designated Hamas is a terrorist organization.
Jordan signed 1994 peace treaty with neighboring Israel under the late King Hussein, becoming the second country to do so after Egypt. The majority of Jordan’s population was originally Palestinian, descendants of families who fled or were forced from their homes in the 1948 war, the year Israel was founded—and in subsequent wars, and were never allowed to return.
Anger has grown along with the death toll in Gaza, where the health ministry said more than 40,000 peopleMany of them women and children, have been killed in Israeli strikes. Israel says it needs to destroy Hamas after Hamas militants led a cross-border offensive last October that Israeli authorities say killed about 1,200 people.
Election posters are displayed on a street in Amman in early September, ahead of parliamentary elections.
Khalil Mazraawi/AFP via Getty Images
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Khalil Mazraawi/AFP via Getty Images
As well as appealing to Jordanians angry about Israeli attacks on Gaza and the West Bank, the IAF has formed alliances to appeal to a broader constituency than the traditional urban conservative Islamists and has succeeded in fielding candidates that include tribal leaders and Christian
Jordan is a constitutional monarchy and King Abdullah II implement electoral reform two years ago aimed at encouraging the role of political parties as a step towards 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 makes and passes laws and has the ability to force the government to resign through a vote of no confidence.
Jordan, a resource-poor country, has been particularly hard hit by the economic fallout from the Gaza war. Tourism, one of the country’s main industries, has plummeted and unemployment, despite official about 22% of the working populationis believed to be much higher.
The head European Union election missionŽeljana Zovko has praised Jordan for successfully holding elections as scheduled, despite the ongoing instability in the region.
