It is ironic how the Muslim Brotherhood reacts differently to the same situation depending on whether it is in power or outside it. In Jordan, the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, the Islamic Labour Front, is opposed to the elections law passed in 2012. It calls it disruptive of the “national consensus” and disrespectful to the “national dialogue” between the opposition and the government. The position of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood is uncannily similar to that of the Egyptian opposition. Muslim Brotherhood leaders in Jordan demand a national salvation government to supervise the upcoming elections, want the elections postponed, and are threatening to boycott the elections unless the government repeals the current elections law. Furthermore, the Muslim Brotherhood has staged massive protests in Jordan to protest against the government's political and economic decisions. At one point, Muslim Brotherhood followers organised a march to the Diwan Malaki, the headquarters of the royal administration, during which they chanted, “The people want to bring down the regime.” Apparently, the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood has no problem making the same arguments the Al-Tayar Al-Shaabi (Popular Current), the Dostour (Constitution) Party or the 6 April Movement are making in Egypt. The massive demonstrations held at the Diwan Malaki in Amman recall those held at Al-Ittihadiya palace in Cairo. And the confrontations of 16 November 2012 in Cairo are not basically different from similar clashes that took place in Jordan. Interestingly enough, the Jordanian authorities are using the same arguments made by the Muslim Brotherhood government in Cairo; namely, that boycott is a sign of weakness and inefficacy on the part of the opposition. The Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood is no stranger to boycott tactics; its boycott of the 2010 elections was so effective that it eventually forced the parliament to disband. So the message from the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan is that political boycott is a legitimate tactic against a regime that refuses to level the field ahead of elections. Is this not the exact message the Egyptian opposition is making at present? In Jordan, protests in which the Muslim Brotherhood took part denounced elections that brought to parliament a disproportionate number of the king's tribal supporters. So, what exactly does the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood think of what the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood is doing? One can only guess that some consultation is going on between the two. In fact, we know that a delegation from Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Bureau, including Secretary-General Mahmoud Hussein and Deputy Guide Gomaa Amin, went to Jordan in October 2012 to attend the convention of Muslim Brotherhood World Guidance Bureaus. According to press reports, the Egyptian and Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood held a meeting in which the matter of the upcoming parliamentary elections in Jordan, due in January 2013, was discussed. So, did the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood delegation advise the Jordanians to boycott the elections? Or did they tell them, as Essam Al-Erian told the National Salvation Front in Egypt, that they would be committing an act of “absenteeism” from the political scene? The Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, mind you, is well integrated in its country's politics. Some of its members served as ministers, deputies and even parliamentary speakers. It has at least once before boycotted elections, but it never before combined a boycott with a call to “bring down the regime”. In fact, when all political parties were banned in Jordan in 1957, the Muslim Brotherhood was the only one to continue to operate, because of its status as a civil society association. So if the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood is changing its policies at present, this must be in reaction to recent events in the world, particularly in Egypt. To sum up, Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood is threatening to boycott elections, and yet we see Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood denouncing an Egyptian group calling for a boycott as “a group of sabotage and havoc”, or as a group that follows foreign dictates and is hell-bent on undermining the legitimate authorities. Now let's consider the reasons Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood is threatening a boycott. First of all, the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood disapproves of the quota of political parties of parliamentary seats. This quota, which used to be 17 seats from the total of 140 seats (the rest goes to independent candidates), has been recently increased to 27 seats (the total number of parliamentary seats went up to 150, with women being allocated 15 of the independent seats). All of Jordan is considered one constituency when it comes to voting for party seats, but for independent seats, voting happens district by district. Secondly, the Jordanian opposition, including the Muslim Brotherhood, is unhappy with what it considers to be a skewed delineation of electoral districts. An over-representation of the countryside, where the power of the pro-government clans is significant, means that the opposition, which is strong in cities, will have less parliamentary seats than it deserves. This, interestingly, is the same point raised by Egypt's opposition. According to Article 113 of the current constitution, written under the watchful eye of the Muslim Brotherhood, “electoral districts must be divided in a manner conducive to the just representation of people and governorates.” This clause prompted the High Constitutional Court to demand the re-delineation of electoral district so as to ensure “the fair representation of the population and the governorates”. The Shura Council didn't comply. Instead, it came up with a delineation of the districts that, while focussing on the numerical size of voters in each district, seems to be intent on dividing the civil and Christian vote. Objections to the current delineation of districts have been brushed aside by the authorities. When critics of the current distribution of districts demanded the opinion of the High Constitutional Court in the matter, their request was ridiculed by constitutional expert Tharwat Badawi. Speaking to Al-Masry Al-Youm, Badawi said that it was pointless “to run back and forth between the Constitutional Court and the Shura Council”. The whole thing is ironic, and yet there is an opportunity here. If the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood really wants to resolve the current stalemate in Egypt, all it needs to do is to take seriously the arguments its sister group is making in Jordan.
