Activists stage sit-in outside Parliament

By Thameen Kheetan

AMMAN - A new unauthorized sit-in by activists crusading for a boycott of the parliamentary elections ended peacefully Saturday.

A previous similar protest ended with brief detention of participants.

The protesters, who represented the Islamic Action Front (IAF) and the left-wing Jordanian Democratic Popular Unity Party (Wihda), claimed that the government was “working on its image” by not resorting to arrests and force in breaking up the demonstration.

According to Fakher Daas, a member of the Boycotters for Change campaign that organized the event, which took place in front of the Parliament, the presence of international rights activists who are in the Kingdom to observe the Tuesday poll was one reason that drove authorities to allow the protest to take place despite the fact that a request for official permission had been turned down by Amman Governor Samir Mubaidin.

For its part, the government said that by allowing the event to go on, it was implementing instructions by Prime Minister Samir Rifai to allow people to express their opinions.

Political Adviser to Prime Minister and Elections Spokesperson Samih Maaytah said that following the October 16 incident, in which at least 10 protesters were taken into custody and released a few hours later, Rifai “instructed the interior ministry to guarantee freedom of expression even if the concerned parties have no permission,” Maaytah told The Jordan Times, insisting that law enforcement agencies acted legally during the previous sit-in as protesters were violating the law.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch criticized the detention of activists, while the two opposition groups organized other events at their parties’ premises as stipulated by the law.

Even this time, Daas said, organizers did not want confrontation with authorities so they fielded a “symbolic number of protesters” not exceeding 60.

In a recent meeting with governors, Rifai stressed that officials should uphold the "right of expression" as they manage the election process.

The boycotters criticize the temporary Elections Law for maintaining the existing one-person, one-vote principle and dividing the existing constituencies into sub-districts, which they claim favors tribes over political parties.

7 November 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=31620.