Islamists take over elections in Jordan: NPR

AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan’s Islamist opposition made the biggest gains of any opposition party in Parliamentary elections took place this week, winning a fifth of the seats as anger at Israel grows over the war in Gaza.

The Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, is now the largest opposition bloc in the 138-member parliament. The legislative body has limited power and will continue to be dominated by pro-government and tribal groups.

The Israeli Air Force's performance in the election was widely seen as a barometer of whether growing support for Hamas, which is at war with Israel, would translate into more seats for the Brotherhood-affiliated party in Jordan and greater influence for Islamist parties in other countries.

Voter turnout was relatively low – on average 32% across the country. The proportion of voters who turned out to vote was significantly higher in the tribal areas and significantly lower in the capital, Amman.

Murad Adailah, seen here in an interview with Reuters in Amman, is the leader of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood, which is still active in Jordan but is not allowed to field direct parliamentary candidates. Many Arab rulers have banned the Muslim Brotherhood because they see it as a threat to their traditional power and their more secular political agenda.

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Leader of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood Murad Adailah told Reuters The Israeli Air Force’s victory was a “popular referendum” expressing support for Hamas and its allies and rejecting the 1994 peace treaty between Jordan and Israel.

Jordan's highest court dissolved the Muslim Brotherhood four years ago, on the grounds that they had not complied with registration laws. The Brotherhood is still active in Jordan, but is not allowed to directly nominate parliamentary candidates. Many Arab rulers have banned the Brotherhood because they see it as a threat to their traditional power and their more secular political agendas.

The Jordanian monarchy is trying to limit the power of the Brotherhood through legislative and legal measures while allowing its supporters a certain degree of freedom of expression. In protests after Friday During prayers, Brotherhood spokesmen regularly shout “We are all Hamas” and call on Jordan to break its peace treaty with Israel.

The United States, Jordan’s main foreign donor, has designated Hamas is a terrorist organization.

Jordan signed its Peace Treaty of 1994 with neighboring Israel under the late King Hussein, making it the second country after Egypt to do so. A large part of Jordan's population is originally Palestinian, descendants of families who fled or were expelled from their homeland in the war of 1948, the year Israel was founded – and in subsequent wars – and were never allowed to return.

Anger has grown with the death toll in Gaza, where the Health Ministry says more than 40,000 peoplemany of them women and children, have been killed in Israeli attacks. Israel says it must destroy Hamas after Hamas militants carried out a cross-border attack last October that killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities.

In early September, before the parliamentary elections, election posters are put up in a street in Amman.

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In addition to appealing to Jordanians angry at Israeli attacks in Gaza and the West Bank, the IAF managed to build alliances to appeal to a broader electorate than its traditional urban conservative Muslim constituency, and successfully fielded candidates including tribal leaders and Christians.

Jordan is a constitutional monarchy and King Abdullah II Electoral reforms implemented The law, introduced two years ago, aimed to strengthen the role of political parties and thus achieve greater democratization. The new laws also increased the number of seats for women and lowered the minimum age for candidacy from 30 to 25.

The king still appoints the heads of government and can dissolve parliament, which introduces and passes laws and has the ability to force the government's resignation through a vote of no confidence.

Jordan, a country poor in natural resources, has been hit particularly hard by the economic consequences of the Gaza war. Tourism, one of the country's most important economic sectors, has declined sharply and unemployment, while officially about 22% of the working populationshould be significantly higher.

The head of European Union Election MissionŽeljana Zovko praised Jordan for managing to hold the elections as planned despite ongoing unrest in the region.