Boycott advocates plan to go ahead with sit-in

By Thameen Kheetan

AMMAN - Election boycott advocates on Wednesday said they are planning to go ahead with a sit-in outside the Parliament even though their request to hold a demonstration was turned down.

Youth activists from the Islamic Action Front (IAF) and the left-wing Jordanian Democratic Popular Unity Party (Wihda), who are boycotting the November 9 parliamentary elections, were scheduled to meet late Wednesday to discuss the matter.

“We will push for continuing with the activity because this [refusal] is against citizens’ right to peacefully express their opinions,” IAF youth leader Ghaith Al Qudah told The Jordan Times yesterday.

Amman Governor Samir Mubaidin turned down a sit-in request by Wihda’s Boycotters for Change campaign, and another by IAF youth activists to organize a march on the same day, Qudah said.

The march was supposed to start at the IAF premises in Abdali and then join the Wihda activists in front of the Parliament, he noted.

Qudah said that the Islamists have decided not to go ahead with the march, but are still willing to join the sit-in.

“I inform you that the request is turned down and that it is possible to hold the activity inside the party headquarters,” Mubaidin said in a letter to Wihda, a copy of which was made available to The Jordan Times.

Under the Public Gatherings Law, Jordanians are required to obtain prior permission from local governors to organize rallies or assemblies.

The law stipulates that political parties are not required to obtain prior permission if the gathering is held inside their headquarters.

Mubaidin could not be reached for comment yesterday.

In a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times yesterday, Boycotters for Change said the sit-in refusal “contradicts the government’s recent pledge” to allow freedom of expression.

The IAF and Wihda have announced their boycott of the elections, saying the temporary Elections Law, which maintained the one-person, one-vote system and divided the existing constituencies into sub-districts, incites bigotry and favors tribal and “sub-national” sentiments.

4 November 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=31557.