Electioneering

Day 85

On Tuesday, November 20th Jordanians headed to the polls to elect their newest batch of representatives in Parliament (Majlis An-Nuwwab). Some observations:

As far as the Middle East goes, Jordan's legislature is fairly democratic, but articles in the constitution and finer points of the election law still reveal a large democratic deficit in comparison with American and European systems. Jordan's Parliament has 110 seats, but rural constituencies are proportionally over-represented, perhaps because the traditional tribal systems are a pillar of King Abdullah's support. Unlike traditional parliamentary systems, the Prime Minister is not elected by MPs but is appointed by the King. This session's new PM has a brother who heads the security and intelligence services, leading some observers to anticipate an alarming intersection of the two branches of executive power. Moreover, the King appoints all members of the Upper House, which, in combination with his veto powers, ensures all laws essentially have to garner his seal of approval. Women are represented in Parliament, but only through a fixed quota system (20%) that does not offer equal representation and delivers political office to a select few women as often as it does resentment from the other candidates and their supporters who lie at the losing end of the deal.

But the social system from which sprouts the grass-roots political process here is the bigger obstacle to free and fair elections and an effective Parliament. The still entrenched influence of tribes begets a patrimonial view of political office so that members of a tribe rally behind their candidate not for his/her specific political platform but for the pork-barrel projects and general access to political favors that a parliamentary seat in Jordan enables. In fact, the general state of the "multi-party" system in Jordan is almost laughable. While they are more than a dozen officially recognized political parties, they seem to lack broad views on issues or points of distinction. The only credible opposition party is the Islamist Action Front (IAF), which has claimed fraud and government interference this round after it lost more than half of the seats it had gained only a session ago. Many analysts expected an IAF boycott of the parliamentary elections after municipality elections this summer produced documented cases of voter fraud, most disturbing a voter card distributed to members of the armed forces (who, nevertheless, are barred from participating in the parliamentary elections). But the IAF went ahead and participated, with its leadership now second-guessing that decision.

Another unfortunate trend in this year's results is an apparent growing income gap between candidates and their constituents. Some Jordanians claim this is clear evidence for the increasing ability of candidates to buy votes, either outright or through offerings of food or future patrimonial favors. I personally witnessed a candidate in Irbid offering sweets to voters, and while this isn't forbidden in either the Jordanian system or Western systems, the fact that his accompanying flyer included little more than his name and picture didn't speak well of his intentions. As evidence of both the impotency of most political parties and the personal nature of campaigning, candidate signs and advertisements on the street are devoid of party identification, but interestingly almost always include the candidate's picture and full (i.e. tribal) name. What political slogans did appear beneath the pictures were so general ("our economy, our future") as to render themeffectively invisible. Of course, I am not lauding the depth of platforms nor absence of special interests in other political systems, for the American system is indeed replete with faults as well. But unlike the Jordanian system, American campaigns, however flawed, operate quite outside of the kind of tribal patrimonial framework that still guides (and circumscribes) the Jordanian reality.

In combination with a disenfranchisement from the top, via the King's powers--whether abused or not, the social framework for campaigns in Jordan leaves the average citizen with a very quiet genuine political voice.