The Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood and the main opposition party in Jordan, won 31 of the 138 seats in parliament.
The Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood and the main opposition party in Jordan, came out on top among political parties in the parliamentary elections, according to results announced Wednesday by the Electoral Commission.
The FAI won 31 of the 41 seats reserved for political parties (out of a total of 138) in the future parliament, which enjoys limited powers, according to the results announced by the electoral commission. The majority went, as usual, to tribal leaders, businessmen or former military personnel loyal to the monarchy. The Islamists had only ten seats out of 130 in the outgoing parliament (compared to 16 in the 2016 legislative elections). They had obtained their best result in the 1989 legislative elections, with 22 seats out of 80.
The head of the Independent Electoral Commission, Moussa Al-Maaytah, said at a press conference that the ISP result illustrated “the Jordanian state’s commitment to political pluralism (…) and to the participation of its citizens in decision-making”Twenty-seven women will sit in this Parliament following a vote marked by a high level of abstention.
“Unprecedented”
Oraib Rantawi, an analyst and director of the al-Quds Center for Policy Studies in Amman, said he was surprised by the“magnitude” of the result obtained by the Islamists. “The votes collected are close to half a million, an unprecedented figure for the Islamist movement”he told AFP, while the country has 11.5 million inhabitants.
The war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas influenced the outcome of the legislative elections in the kingdom, where nearly half of the Jordanian population is of Palestinian origin, he said. Demonstrations have regularly called for the cancellation of the peace treaty since the start of hostilities. “We are pleased with these results and the trust that the Jordanian people have placed in us. These elections mark an important step towards the development of our political system.”said Wael al-Saqa, Secretary General of the FAI.
He has vowed to mobilize efforts to support Gaza and the Palestinian cause. Two days before the legislative elections, a Jordanian killed three Israeli security guards at a border crossing between Jordan and the West Bank. The kingdom is calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, where the war sparked by a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 has entered its 12th month.
Neighboring Israel and the occupied West Bank, Jordan has seen a decline in tourism since the start of the war, a sector that accounts for about 14 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). On Tuesday, about 1.6 million Jordanians voted out of 5.1 million registered voters, according to the electoral commission.
These are the first elections since the adoption of a new law in January 2022 that increased the number of seats in parliament from 130 to 138, raised the quota for women (from 15 to 18) and lowered the minimum age for candidates. The Jordanian parliament is bicameral. In addition to the 138 deputies who will be elected, it has 69 senators appointed by the monarch. The assembly can withdraw its confidence in the government, approve and enact laws.
