Jordan’s Islamist opposition has suffered a major defeat in the parliamentary election; it is set to lose two-thirds of the 18 MPs it had in the last parliament. While the party itself has blamed electoral fraud, infighting and a failure to deliver on campaign promises also played a role-but perhaps the most important factor is an unfavourable electoral system. With a weaker Islamist presence in parliament, the prospects for political reform in Jordan are dimmer. The Islamic Action Front (IAF)-Jordan’s only coherent opposition party-won just six of the 22 seats it targeted in the November 20th election to the 110-seat parliament, Jordan’s interior ministry announced on November 21st on the basis of preliminary results. The IAF, which is the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, had targeted 22 constituency seats that it thought it had a good chance of winning. The six-seat haul is a surprisingly poor showing, despite the institutional impediments that the IAF faces. In the previous election, held in June 2003, the party won 18 seats. The elections themselves went smoothly, with few disruptions to the voting process and an estimated turnout of 54%. However, turnout was well below 50% in the more […]