It is election time in Jordan. Oula Farawati feels the public pulse as electioneering starts "Why are we having the elections again if all nominees are the same as last time?" Jordanian Kamel Al-Asmar exclaims on Twitter. Campaigning for the 9 November elections has started in Jordan and will last for a month. Candidate registration had just started when Al-Asmar made his observation. Another Jordanian tweep, Arab Observer, replies with a confirmation: "Yes same faces! That is not good! Let's try to identify new ones." This is the mood among Jordanians as the country gears up for the election marathon. The country looks divided: there is the educated elite whose mood has shown resistance to vote for "lack of good quality candidates and agendas", the middle class, whose mood is apathetic as it is pre-occupied with making a living, and the highly motivated kin and next of kin of candidates, whose passion to vote is fuelled by pure kinship. In the three days of candidate registration, 853 Jordanian have nominated themselves to run. Overnight, the country has turned into a big marketing pad. The streets are awash with banners, posters and advertisements announcing "imminent change" on the political, educational, economic, and cultural levels. Candidates have invaded the Internet: Facebook, daily newspapers, websites and online news sites are jammed with candidates' photos and slogans. The slogans are ambitious: fighting corruption, combating poverty and unemployment, achieving social and educational equality, salvaging the economy and even liberating Palestine. One tweet made the funny observation on Twitter: "Campaign slogans seem to be: 'Everyone for Jordan', 'Jordan is for everyone' or 'The country is everyone's'." The government has its own fair share of slogans as well: on numerous occasions, the government said the elections will be fair, representative, impartial, democratic, strict, lawful, legitimate, objective and transparent. Minister of Interior Nayef Al-Qadi reiterates the official line that elections were a "constitutional prerogative for Jordanians". Candidates represent a wide range of Jordanian cultural, economic and political spectrums. As has always been the norm, the family or tribal candidates make up the vast majority, but some political, economic and social figures have joined the battle. What's irking many observers is the fact that the same "usual suspects" have nominated themselves. They come against the backdrop of a previous parliament whose performance was marred by corruption, low performance and public contempt, which subsequently led to its dissolution two years ahead of time. The electoral scene remains quite predictable, according to political analyst Fahed Al-Khitan. "The first day of candidate registration has drawn a preliminary picture of what the new parliament will look like. Had it not been quite sensitive to candidates, I could name at least half the members who will make it to the upcoming lower house parliament," he noted. But the scene is missing the Islamic movement and the usual flavour of patriotism, Palestinianism, Arabism, nationalism and Islamism that they bring to elections. Al-Khitan however, argues that the Islamists' absence would be salvaged by the diversity other candidates will bring in: "Incidentally, the initial picture is not so bad compared to the combination of the three former parliaments. It is true that the opposition seats of the traditional representatives of the Islamic movement will remain empty, but there are quite a few candidates who are likely to win and have a strong parliamentary presence by virtue of their political expertise," he wrote in Al-Arab Al-Yawm. Jordanian Islamists have decided to boycott the elections, citing the "lack of political will to change" and protesting the new temporary elections law that the government came up with in May 2009. Government and civil society efforts to convince Islamists otherwise have failed and the government turned down their request to postpone the elections till an agreement is reached. Since they announced their boycott, the Islamists have been vocal locally in stating the reasons why they will not partake in the national polls and indirectly encouraging others to boycott, something that the government has deemed illegal. However, the government has also downplayed the Islamists' decision to shun the elections. Elections spokesperson Samih Maaita told Media Line that the government was actually expecting a high turnover. "No one can deny the impact of the Islamists' boycott. However, many others are enthusiastic about the elections. The elections are not in crisis because of the boycott of the Islamists and we will not see a weak turnout because of their boycott," he said. The elections will actually become a test for the popularity of the Islamists, political analyst Mohamed Hussein Momani believes. He also shrugs off the "stereotype" that an Islamic Action Front boycott will result in a massive decrease of voter turnout. "The elections are not only important because they come after the dissolution of the House two years before the end of its tenure, or because they will be held according to the new election law, but because elections will be a referendum on the popularity of the Islamist movement, its political presence in the electoral arena and its ability to influence the decision of the citizens to vote," he wrote in Al-Ghad. The Islamists have just ridden the wave of public apathy to the elections, he noted. "Personally I do not expect the absence of the Islamist to decrease voter turnout significantly. This expectation is supported by the fact that most of the voters for candidates of the Islamic movement are sympathisers, not members or believers," Momani added. The approaching elections present an opportunity to the government to chart a new course for the political life in a country strained by political fragmentation, economic problems and public apathy. Failure to present the public with impartial elections and a representative House threatens to send political life in Jordan into a deeper abyss, for years and years to come.
