Around five thousand Jordanian protestors took to the streets on Friday demanding political liberalisation, wider parliamentary representation and constitutional changes limiting the powers of the throne. "Reform and change, this is the demand of people," angry protestors shouted among a mainly Islamists and leftist crowd joined by some tribal and liberal figures marching from the main Husseini mosque in the capital's downtown to a nearby square.
The Jordanian opposition, spearheaded by the mainstream Islamists, the country's largest political party, have been protesting for weeks for wider democratic gains as anti-government demonstrations sweep across the Arab world. They are demanding more say, starting with a modern election law that broadens representation in parliament for inhabitants of the capital and the major cities of Zarqa and Irbid, where most of the country's seven million population live.
The cities which are Islamist strongholds and heavily populated by Jordanians of Palestinian origin are under-represented in the 120-seat assembly in favour of sparsely populated rural and Bedouin areas inhabited mainly by native Jordanians, or so called East Bankers who are the backbone of support for the throne. "We tell our government that reform has become a necessity that cannot wait," Sheikh Hamza Mansour, the head of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the country's largest opposition group, told the crowds in a rally at the end of the march. "It's not just the demand of the Islamist movement or the opposition party. It's the demand of all Jordanians," he added.
Protestors chanted: "The people want to reform the regime", "we want a fair electoral law", and "people want an elected government". The Arab world has erupted in protests aimed at ousting long-standing rulers, but protests in Jordan have focused on holding free elections and fighting corruption.