Jordan: Election Law to Change

On Tuesday, Marc Lynch wrote about King Abdullah II‘s decision to dissolve the Jordanian parliament, saying the move didn’t come as a surprise, but that the ineffective parliament was a product of the regime’s decision to interfere with the 2007 elections.  While Abdullah faces the option of either ruling with a parliament or conducting more rigged elections, Lynch feels the best move for the king is to call for a new, more honest, election law that created open political competition.   While it would be a risky move for the regime, which faces intense public dissatisfaction, Lynch argues that the Muslim Brotherhood will be unlikely to more than try to attain a respectable level of representation and there is no other meaningful opposition.

Today, The Jordan Times reports that the king has in fact called for a new election law that “should be a model of transparency, fairness and integrity, and a promising step in our process of reform and modernisation.”  The story reports that opposition leaders hailed the decision and called for new elections based on the revised elections law.  Analysts agreed that the law is likely to be amended in connection with a proposed decentralization law, which is expected to become a temporary law during parliament’s suspension.