The Jordanian government on September 19 failed in its bid to sway the influential Muslim Brotherhood movement to go back on its decision to boycott the forthcoming parliamentary elections after the group insisted on conducting the polls according to a new election law. “The dialogue was positive, but what the government offered falls short of our demands,” Hamzeh Mansour, secretary-general of the group’s political arm, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), said. “We still stick to our demand that the elections be conducted in accordance with a new election law that enjoys national consensus, otherwise we cannot take part in the polling process,” slated for November 9, he said. Mansour on September 18 led a Brotherhood delegation to a four-hour meeting with Prime Minister Samir Rifai and other Cabinet ministers, who assured Islamists that the polls would be held in “maximum fairness and neutrality.” The executive bureaus of the Brotherhood and the IAF held urgent meetings later Saturday to appraise the outcome of the meeting with Rifai, but both panels turned down the government’s offer as insufficient as far as fairness of the polling process is concerned. However, Mansour said that the IAF was ready to continue the dialogue with the government with a view to arriving at a new election law “acceptable to all political parties in the country”. Mansour and other Brotherhood leaders said they wanted to ensure non-repetition of the “rigging” that marred the 2007 polls.
JORDAN’S BROTHERHOOD REJECT GOVT PLEA TO CONTEST ELECTIONS
The Jordanian government on September 19 failed in its bid to sway the influential Muslim Brotherhood movement to go back on its decision to boycott the forthcoming parliamentary elections after the group insisted on conducting the polls according to a new election law.
