Mohammad Ayesh
Middle East Eye / September 12, 2024
The Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Islamic Action Front surged in polls, vowing to stand up for the Palestinian people
The Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), achieved a significant victory in Jordan’s historic parliamentary elections this week, winning the most votes while falling short of a majority.
For the first time in the country’s history, voting was conducted using a proportional representation system, after years of criticism of the “one-man one-vote” structure, seen to favour tribal affiliations over political parties.
The IAF won 31 out of 138 seats in the Jordanian parliament, tripling its representation from the 2020 elections.
This marks the largest victory for Islamists in the country since 1989, when the Muslim Brotherhood gained 22 out of 80 seats in parliament.
Murad al-Adaileh, the IAF’s secretary general, told Middle East Eye that his party’s success was a result of both its performance in the previous parliament and its pro-Palestinian stance amid Israel’s war on Gaza.
“The next House of Representatives must be robust in confronting the extreme Israeli right, which may, in the future, align with the extreme American right if Trump wins the US elections,” Adaileh said.
Voters were also seeking solutions to their economic woes, he added, as unemployment reached 21 percent in the first quarter of this year, with the war across the border exacerbating Jordan’s economic crisis.
Key implications
A few days before the vote, I spoke with former Jordanian MP and tribal leader Hael Waddan al-Dajjah. He told me that the general mood in the country was leaning towards the “Islamist trend”, viewing this as the best method of protection from the threats currently facing Jordan, “especially Israeli movements in the West Bank”.
Jordanian tribes have expressed fears that Israel’s recent assaults on the occupied West Bank, coupled with talk of forcibly expelling Palestinians, are part of an Israeli plot to transform Jordan into a Palestinian state and destabilise the kingdom.
“Holding fair elections that truly represent the Jordanian people is the only guarantee for the cohesion of the internal front in the face of Israeli threats,” Dajjah said.
King Abdullah II has warned that the ongoing Israeli aggression in the occupied West Bank constitutes a direct threat to Jordan’s security, potentially leading to an uncontrollable wave of regional violence.
In this context, the IAF’s victory in the recent parliamentary elections holds several important implications.
Firstly, it sends a message to the political establishment that the Jordanian people support the Muslim Brotherhood, which has repeatedly been targeted by the state. The same message will reverberate internationally, particularly among external powers that have pressured Jordan to proscribe the Brotherhood as a “terrorist” organisation.
The results also point to the importance of the Palestinian issue for Jordanian voters, as the IAF’s program calls to isolate Israel and cancel its peace treaty with Jordan. Interestingly, many votes for the IAF came from tribal areas, showing the party’s increasing support in regions that have typically been government strongholds.
These developments herald an important shift in Jordan’s political life, as the increasing emphasis on the party system will push many to compete in building their programs. This, in turn, will enhance the democratic experience and encourage people to participate politically.
Above all, these elections are a Jordanian message of defiance to Israel – and a pledge of support for Palestinians, underscoring the Jordanian people’s refusal to abandon them.
Mohammad Ayesh is an Arab journalist currently based in London
