Preliminary Results Show Muslim Brotherhood With 15 Percent of Seats
Preliminary results in Jordan’s parliamentary elections show the Muslim Brotherhood winning 18 seats out of 130 seats, in the first time they have participated in the election since 2007. The elections were held under new rules that aimed to democratize Jordan, in which votes chose lists of candidates rather than individuals.
Voter turnout was just 37 percent, down from over 50 percent in past elections. Yet Jordanian analysts say that the fact that the elections are even being held is a success.
“The Muslim Brotherhood have a deep interest to be part of the process and to be represented in the parliament,” Oraib al Rantawi, the director of the Al-Quds Center for Political Studies told The Media Line. “They are under heavy attack in the region in general and they are empowering themselves by parliamentary legitimacy.”
In Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi won the 2012 elections for Prime Minister, the first elections held after mass protests forced longtime leader Hosni Mubarak to step down. Within a year, Morsi was thrown out of office by current leader Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who declared the organization illegal. Hundreds of members of the group were killed and thousands imprisoned.
Jordanian analysts said that the low voter turnout shows that Jordanians do not believe the parliament to be an effective governing body. Power is centered in King Abdullah who must ratify all laws passed by Parliament before they come into force. That means the King maintains veto power over parliament. The King also appoints the Prime Minister and the cabinet members.
At the same time, the fact that the elections were held at all in the chaos that is today’s Middle East is itself a success, analysts said.
“While other countries are facing civil war and terrorism, Jordan is holding elections,” Mohammed Hussainy, the director of the Identity Center in Jordan told The Media Line. “We will have some new faces in this parliament.”
The elections are the first to be held under a reformed system in which voters choose a political list, rather than individual candidates. The idea was to stop voters from choosing individual lawmakers based on family or tribal considerations.
The biggest issue in the election was the economy. Jordan, which has few natural resources, has been facing a growing economic crisis. The official rate of unemployment is 15 percent but unofficial rates among youth are between 30 and 40 percent. Jordan has also struggled to accommodate thousands of Syrian refugees.
“Jordanians are deeply interested in dealing with their economic problems like inflation and poverty and corruption,” analyst al Rantawi said. “They want to see the new parliament confront these challenges.”
Katie Beiter, a student journalist at The Media Line, contributed reporting