Jordan faces political crisis as opposition parties boycott election
Jordan, Politics, 7/17/1997

In a move that could seriously undermine Jordan's experiment in democracy, Islamist and secular opposition parties are edging towards endorsing a call by the influential Muslim Brotherhood to pull out of parliamentary elections that are scheduled for November.

Opposition figures said on July 15 that members of the Brotherhood's Islamic Action Front (IAF) political arm and its partners in a broad opposition coalition were expressing growing support for a boycott.

"The Brotherhood has ended the reluctance of the general opposition to boycott," said Salem al-Nahas, head of the Jordan People's Democratic Party, "It has created the option of the complete boycott. All the opposition parties will follow."

Analysts say an all-out boycott would deal a serious blow to Jordan's nascent democracy under King Hussein, who unlike many Arab leaders has so far been willing to accommodate the mainly Islamic opposition within mainstream politics.

The IAF itself has not yet declared whether it will put any candidates on the ballot or not. Some IAF members, who won a fifth of parliamentary seats in the last elections in 1993, say a boycott would harm them, curbing Islamist influence and leaving the government free to pursue policies the Islamists oppose.

The brotherhood says successive governments have marginalized parliament and the opposition since the last elections, Jordan's first multi-party ballot after decades of marital law.

"The brotherhood's assessment is that they are no longer part of the state. This is the main thing which finally pushed them to take this action," Nahas said.

It announced it would reconsider its boycott call only if the government revoks a raft of "interim" laws, issued without being passed through parliament, and offers guarantees about political freedoms.

The government dismissed the Brotherhood demands as illogical and said that elections would go ahead regardless.

Analysts say that unless the two sides are able to reach a compromise, Jordan's eight-year experiment with democracy will be totally undermined.

"It puts our political life at a turning point. If the opposition decides not to participate, especially the Muslim brotherhood, it cannot be a pluralistic election," he said. "This will be a big disaster, and it will show not only the government but the whole world that our democracy isn't working normally."

Supporters said it was time to pull out of a parliament which they said they could not influence.

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