Following poor showing, Islamists may disband party

By Mohammad Ben Hussein

AMMAN - Leaders of the Islamist Centrist Party (ICP) are considering dissolving the party following a disappointing showing in the parliamentary elections.

The party fielded 11 candidates in Jerash, Zarqa, Madaba, Amman and Tafileh, but only Musa Zawahreh from Zarqa secured a seat in the Lower House.

The dismal showing for the party, which has nearly 1,500 members concentrated in urban areas, has been a cause for political soul-searching, according to Marwan Faouri, head of the ICP’s political office.

“Jordan is not ready for political parties. Tribes and money are stronger than political parties,” Faouri told The Jordan Times over the phone on Thursday.

“What we saw in the elections proved to us beyond a doubt that the country prefers tribal candidates or those with money to spend. There is no need to run a party in such an atmosphere,” he added.

According to Faouri, a meeting of the ICP executive office is scheduled to take place next week to discuss the party’s fate.

He said the blame lies on both the party and the one-person, one-vote system, which he claimed was “unhelpful to political parties”.

“We want to have elections where political parties can stand a chance to compete with tribal candidates and influential businessmen who bought their way into Parliament,” he said.

“Those who decided against running in the elections were right to do so,” Faouri added.

Election results showed a disappointing performance for opposition parties.

None of the eight candidates fielded by a coalition of opposition parties representing the Hashed, Jordan Baath, Jordan Communist and National Unity parties won a seat through direct competition.

Only Abla Abu Olbeh, secretary general of Hashed Party, won through the women’s quota after securing 10.2 per cent’s of the vote in Amman’s First District.

The Islamic Action Front, the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, boycotted the elections in protest against the Elections Law.

In 2007, the IAF was the only political party to reach the Lower House of Parliament, winning six seats, its worst showing since the reintroduction of political life in 1989.

Meanwhile, the conservative pro-government National Current Party secured 25 seats, according to party leader and former Lower House speaker Abdul Hadi Majali.

12 November 2010

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=31783.