Jordan is about a week away from electing its 17th lower house of parliament, and from the look of things — the calibre of candidates and their often lame slogans — most citizens foresee a weak new parliament to come; one that will be hardly capable of meeting public expectations. Politicians and activists interviewed by Al-Ahram Weekly said the upcoming Chamber of Deputies would be no different from the previous two — both dissolved — and will face several challenges among calls for its dissolution. “We will end up with the same faces and the same performance,” said political analyst Ibrahim Gharaibeh. “The candidates are mostly former members of parliament or new individuals that do not appear capable of affecting change,” Gharaibeh claimed a few days before the kingdom of 6.5 million is gearing up for 23 January elections. Of the total population, 2.2 million have registered for the elections and are eligible to vote. The lack of quality candidates and agendas, and particularly the prevalence of the same candidates who were running for the previous parliament, is proof that no change will be made in the country, said Gharaibeh, who added that public demands include fighting corruption, amending the current elections law, and developing the country's education and higher education system. “I doubt that the upcoming parliament will succeed in addressing these issues,” he said. “None of the current candidates submitted a statement addressing these issues,” Gharaibeh stressed, noting that quality politicians should be blamed for not running for the elections. According to Jordan's Independent Elections Commission, 1,484 candidates are vying for 150 seats. Of these, 27 seats are allocated for national electoral lists and 15 to women, based on the quota system. Nominations for the upcoming elections began 22 December. Since then, the country has turned into an advertising billboard. Streets are awash with banners, and news websites jammed with candidates' photos and slogans announcing: “Jordan is for all, and all is for Jordan,” “Towards a parliamentary government,” “Fighting hikes in prices,” and some even less realistic slogans, as described by political expert and human rights activists Kamal Mashreqi. “Parliamentarians will need double their terms to address some issues stated in their slogans,” Mashreqi told the Weekly. Instead of coming up with such unrealistic slogans, they should focus on issues of interest to the public. “The controversial press and publications, and the landlords and tenants laws should be on top of their priorities,” Mashreqi said, adding that the race should not be focused on getting a seat in parliament, but on how to benefit from the democratic changes taking place in some Arab countries. “Positive change and reform are what we need, not slogans that will be swept away as soon as these candidates get into parliament,” he noted, adding that elected deputies will almost certainly fail again. Former deputy and lawyer Mubarak Abu Yameen echoed Mashreqi's views. “The success or failure of the upcoming parliament depends on the issues they prioritise,” Abu Yameen said. For Abu Yameen, modifying legislation on social security, in addition to the laws mentioned by Mashreqi, should be a priority for the upcoming deputies. In one of his articles for Al-Ghad daily, columnist Mohamed Abu Rumman said the upcoming parliament would be almost the same as the dissolved 16th parliament. Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood's Islamic Action Front (IAF), that is boycotting the elections, appointed themselves as observers. While confident that the upcoming parliament will fail to address the country's major issues, the IAF's secretary-general, Hamza Mansour, said the upcoming lower house of parliament will be “born dead”. According to Mansour, the major challenge facing the 17th parliament is public rejection. “The public will call for its dissolution, the next day after the results are announced,” Mansour told the Weekly. He added that the opposition would be nationwide and not only from IAF members. He also claimed that the IAF has “eyes” across the country to monitor the electoral process and its transparency. The IAF has called for a major rally 18 January to support the boycott effort. The boycott came in rejection of the current elections law, which the Islamist current claims is in favour of independent and tribal candidates at the expense of political parties. Gharaibeh, however, believes that the participation of Islamists and other opposition groups would not have added anything new to the elections, “because they are incapable of coming up with a good solution for the current political and economic problems in the country”. Failure of the upcoming Jordanian parliament will have serious repercussions. It threatens political life in Jordan, which so far managed to survive the Arab Spring.
