Jordan’s MB: New Election Law Linked To IAF Possible Participation In Elections

Jordanian Islamic Action Front (IAF) Party, confirmed that it hasn’t made its mind yet over participating in the upcoming elections, waiting for the government’s possible amendments to the election law according to which the elections will be held.
 
 
Zaki Bin Arshid, the Secretary-General of the Jordanian Islamic Action Front Party, confirmed that the party hasn’t made its mind yet over participating in the parliamentary elections, pointing out that the party’s decision depends on the government upcoming steps regarding the election law, according to which the elections will be held.
 
He said in a statement to Ikhwanweb that the party ” is about to discuss the experience of participating in the fourteenth version of the House to know the pros and cons of the its future participation “; he said that the party’s decision is ” linked to the coming political developments including the bill law according to which the elections will be held”.
 
Bin Arshid confirmed that the party is “not satisfied” with the performance of the fourteenth version of the House of Representatives that, he said, ” did not address the citizens demands of updating legislations in a way that leads to a real political reform”, pointing out that the laws organizing the exercise of political life “are still paralyzed”.
 
He added that this House “approved several legislations that disappointed citizens and increased suppression on freedoms, like laws of banning preaching, issuing fatwas and others”.
 
Bin Arshid pointed out that the House of Representatives “gave a deaf ear” to the parties agreement with the former government concerning the parties law, as “the committee for legal affairs in the House of Representatives ignored the views of the concerned parties and referred, to the House, the same text of the bill law submitted by the government.
 
The leader of the IAF, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhod in Jordan, attributed what he called failure of the current House in meeting people’s aspiration to the fact that ” it doesn’t represent the Jordanian street in the full meaning of the word “, because it was shifted from “multi-seat, multiple vote” format to a “multiple seat, single vote” format, forcing voters to choose between their tribal/ethnic allegiances and their political/ideological preferences. This system changes MPs from MPs for the sake of the nation, to services MPs, according to him.
 
Bin Arshid saw that reaching a House of Representative which is effective in the political life and exercises its constitutional role of legislating and supervising ” starts with reforming the election law to lead to a competition of agendas among slates and parties, so that the biggest parliamentary bloc is the one that should form the government to allow a power transition”.
 
He said that the election law that divides constituencies according to the number of MPs ” is not an appropriate solution for the current law” which is restricted to electing one single representative from among a number of persons.
 
He suggested that the seats should be divided into 50% for a relative slate nationwide in which all parties compete while the other 50 % remain regional constituencies with every constituency giving one representative.
He pointed in this regard that the governoratewide slates are another innovation which resembles the single vote innovation”.
 
As for the coming Municipal elections, Bin Arshid said the IAF ” hasn’t taken a decision of the size and form of its participation in these elections; what it only did was asking IAF branches to study the proposal of participation on the ground in these regions and submit reports about this”, denying any press estimations regarding the party’s next participation in the parliamentary and municipal elections.
 
He concluded by saying that the decision of participating in the elections is ” based on institutional decisions which haven’t been taken yet and all estimations regarding this topic are merely personal viewpoints.


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