Jordan's king approves controversial election law

July 24, 2012

RECORDER REPORT

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Jordan's King Abdullah II approved on Monday a controversial election law deemed by critics as "undemocratic." In a royal decree issued Monday, the monarch approved legislation that is to govern elections later this year, which the authorities say are key to the country's reform process. These will be Jordan's first polls since the Arab Spring uprisings.

Political parties and tribal leaders object to the law for keeping intact a convoluted one-person, one-vote electoral system, which they say limits the representation of political parties and has led to the formation of "rubber stamp" parliaments dominated by regime loyalists.

Nearly all political parties, trade unions, tribes and reform coalitions - including the Muslim Brotherhood, the nation's largest political force - have vowed to forgo the elections should they be held under the legislation, calling on the king to withdraw the law. In light of the controversy caused by law, first passed by parliament in June, Abdullah returned the legislation to lawmakers earlier this month for further amendments, a move which led political groups to suspend their boycott drive. However, after parliament failed to alter the electoral system in the revised law, political parties launched a national campaign urging Jordanians to boycott the upcoming elections.