Four Jordanian parties announce elections boycott

Four Jordanian opposition parties said on July 20 they were pulling out of parliamentary elections planned for November.

They said they were heading the call for a boycott to protest government steps since 1993 elections, which the opposition say have sidelined parliament.

The four parties involved, who do not hold a parliamentary seat between them, are the Jordanian People's Democratic Party, the Jordanian Arab Constitutional Party, the National Labor Front and the Arab Jordanian Ansar party.

The Jordanian People's Democratic Party won one seat in the 1993 elections, but its deputy defected to another party. The other three parties were set up since the last elections.

"In the last four years, the conviction has set in among the people that the coming parliament will be the least reflective of the popular will.

The opposition says successive governments appointed by King Hussein since the 1993 elections have marginalized parliament. They opposed unsuccessfully the ratification of Jordan's peace accord with Israel and have demanded the government revoke laws on the press, the economy and the elections themselves.