May 24th, 2010 by Josh

At the Middle East Channel, Curtis R. Ryan discusses Jordan’s new electoral system and what it demonstrates about the Jordanian regime’s “commitment to liberal reforms.” While the new law does accede to some of the demands of reformists, Ryan believes that “it is not at all transformative and at most makes some minor adjustments to the status quo.” In an effort to mollify reformists — a community increasingly tossed aside in favor of the “more reactionary traditional elite” — the regime puts a good deal of effort into slogans and marketing campaigns that merely present a superficial layer of change. One reformist complained to Ryan that the monarchy’s “words are with the reformers, but its actions are for the status quo.”

Conspicuously absent from the new legislation is one of the primary recommendations from the 2005 National Agenda commission — a group appointed by King Abdullah to create the “architecture for political and economic reform in the kingdom for years to come.” The commission had called for amending Jordan’s existing Single Non-Transferable Vote system (SNTV) by adding elements of proportional representation and party lists. As things currently stand, however, “the 2010 elections will be contested in a way that, despite the minor reforms, should minimize the development of political parties and encourage localized rather than national voting,” meaning that the “regime will therefore get the conservative, traditional, tribalistic, and pro-regime parliament that it wants.”

Posted in Elections, Jordan, Legislation, Political Parties, Reform |