Islamists open internal debate on municipal elections

By Mohammad Ben Hussein

AMMAN - The Islamist movement on Sunday started deliberations over their participation in the next municipal elections.

In a meeting yesterday, members of the Islamic Action Front (IAF) shura council and executive office as well as senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders exchanged views on the importance of the polls to political reform in the country.

The meeting was held to hear all views on the party’s participation in the next municipal polls before presenting the issue to members, according to Hamzah Mansour, secretary general of the IAF, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Islamist leaders said their participation in the polls, expected to be held this year, hinges on two major factors: a decision by the Muslim Brotherhood shura council and opinion polls across the party’s 24 branches, Mansour told The Jordan Times yesterday.

The closed-door meeting recommended further study of the Municipal Elections Law. However, Islamist sources said the movement would prefer to have assurances from the government over the elections before making a final decision, expected within a few weeks.

The Islamist movement boycotted the recent parliamentary elections in protest over the one-person, one-vote electoral system in the temporary Elections Law, which political parties claim favors tribal-affiliated candidates.

Islamist leaders said that although they did not officially field any candidates in the parliamentary polls, they will push to take part in the municipal elections.

"Our boycott was based on sound reasoning that the government was not serious in its drive for reform, therefore we sent a message that the elections were not the right way to reform without proper legislation," said Tayseer Fitayani, chief of the IAF court, which placed several IAF members on trial for running in the elections in violation of the ban.

Municipal elections are expected to be held across the Kingdom sometime this year as part of a decentralization policy designed to empower local communities. The government is yet to announce when the polls will be held.

The Islamist movement pulled out of the 2007 municipal elections on the day of the polls, citing what it claimed were irregularities, allegations the government rejected as “baseless”.

3 January 2011

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=33125.