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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan | |
| Islamists make gains in Jordan vote overshadowed by Gaza war | |
| 2024-09-12 | |
| [The Times of Israel] Jordan's Islamist opposition made significant gains in parliamentary elections, boosted by anger over Israel's war in Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppressionand disproportionate response... , initial official results showed on Wednesday. The Islamist Action Front also benefited from a new electoral law that encourages a bigger role for political parties in the 138-seat parliament, though tribal and pro-government factions will continue to dominate the assembly. The Front, the political arm of the Moslem Brüderbund, won up to a fifth of the seats under the revamped electoral law, which for the first time allocated 41 seats for parties, according to preliminary figures seen by Rooters and confirmed by independent and official sources. ''The Jordanian people have given us their trust by voting for us. This new phase will increase the burden of responsibility for the party towards the nation and our citizens,'' Wael al Saqqa, head of the party, told Rooters. Tuesday's vote represents a modest step in a democratization process launched by King Abdullah II as he seeks to insulate Jordan from the conflicts at its borders, and respond to demands for robust political reforms.
The Islamic Action Front (IAF), a political offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, came ahead of other parties and factions in the legislature after Tuesday’s vote, but was far from clinching a majority, according to official election results released on Wednesday. The result is a historic win for the Islamists and their largest representation since the Muslim Brotherhood in 1989 gained 22 out of the 80 seats that existed then. The IAF had 10 seats in the previous parliament elected in 2020 and 16 seats in the 2016 legislature. The Islamists had sought to capitalize on growing anger over the ongoing war in Gaza among Jordanians, half of whom are of Palestinian origin. Wael al Saqqa vowed that Jordanians would give Palestinians “financial and other assistance, and be their lungs in the path of liberation and achieving their right to a free state.” The Muslim Brotherhood has been allowed to operate in Jordan since 1946. But it fell under suspicion after the Arab Spring, which saw Islamists pitted against established powers in many Arab countries. “The elections reflect the desire for change and those who voted were not necessarily all Islamists but wanting change and had become fed up with the old ways,” Murad Adailah, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood, said. The Islamists, the only effective grassroots opposition, praised the authorities for not meddling in polls. Adailah told Reuters their win was a “popular referendum” that backs their platform of support for the Palestinian terror group Hamas, their ideological allies, and their demand to scrap the country’s peace treaty with Israel. The other seats in parliament went to representatives of major Jordanian tribes, leftist parties, pro-government factions, centrists, former lawmakers, and retired military officers. Twenty-seven women won seats in the legislature, following 2022 reforms that allocated more seats for them and reduced the minimum age for candidates. That reform also expanded the number of seats from 130 to 138 and sought to strengthen the role of political parties in the legislature. Under Jordan’s constitution, most powers still rest with the king who appoints governments and can dissolve parliament. The assembly can force a cabinet to resign by a vote of no confidence. The monarch hopes nascent political parties under the new law will help pave the way for governments that emerge from parliamentary majorities. The voting system still favors sparsely populated tribal and provincial regions over the densely populated cities mostly inhabited by Jordanians of Palestinian descent, which are Islamist strongholds and highly politicized. Turnout registered 32 percent in the polls that were largely overshadowed by the Gaza war and Jordan’s economic troubles. The war in Gaza has affected tourism to Jordan, which relies on the sector for about 14% of its gross domestic product. Compounding the country’s economic woes, public debt has neared $50 billion and unemployment hit 21% in the first quarter of this year. Jordan in 1994 signed a peace treaty with Israel, becoming only the second Arab state to do so after Egypt, but regular protests have called for the treaty’s dissolution since the war erupted on October 7 when Palestinian terror group Hamas led a devastating attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel responded with a military offensive to destroy Hamas in Gaza and free 251 hostages who were abducted by terrorists in the Hamas attack. Oraib Rantawi, head of the Amman-based Al Quds Center for Political Studies, described the Islamists’ gains in the election as “astonishing in their magnitude.” The Islamists won “nearly half a million votes,” a figure he said was unprecedented in their history in Jordan. “Gaza played a major role in this,” he added, as well as a feeling among voters that other competing parties “were created in haste… to reduce the chances of success of the Islamic Action Front.” | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 80% of Jordan population are "Palestinians" from Syria*. 20% are Hashemites and allied Saudi tribes. *Gazan "Palestinians" are from Egypt. They and West Bankers speak in mutually incomprehensible dialects of Arabic. |
| Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2024-09-12 09:21 |