Jordan’s Electoral Festivities
Drum To Different TunesBy Dr Marwan Asmar
08 November, 2007
Countercurrents.org
When they asked Jordanian Prime Minister Dr Maarouf Al Bakheit wouldn’t it be better to have international observers to monitor the coming parliamentary election in the country slated for November 20, he promptly said no.He couldn’t really have done other wise since Jordan was experimenting with parliamentary democracy since 1989 and has had four consecutive general elections since then; and you can say the country is capable of having one more without the help of international monitors.
With this in mind, the elections campaign kicked off one month in advance on October 20 when the country was turned upside down through election banners, pictures of candidates on its roads and streets and distinctively Jordanian election tents hoisted as headquarters for each prospective candidate standing.
Together with the mass ads in newspapers and news and commentary on the local television and the numerous radio stations that hit the country in the last few years, this elections campaign seemed to be having a real festive flavor, not just in Amman but all over the country.
Over 900 candidates are standing for the elections, they each paid $ 1000 registration fee to the government, and are expecting to fork out between $ 50,000 and $ 80,000 on an average electoral campaign. However, some candidates will be spending much higher from $250,000 up to $ 2 million by polling day on November 20.
In comparison to other countries, especially Europe and the United States such figures may seem miniscule, but in Jordan, they are quite a lot, considering the low per capita income.
Despite the fact political parties have been legal since 1994, many candidates are standing as independents although the Islamic Action Front is fielding 22 candidates in these parliamentary elections. Traditionally they have been seen a strong force, and observers say they are not afraid to be labeled as is the case with other candidates.
Independents include members of political parties like Baathists, nationalists, leftists, pro-government supporters, some liberals and “triblists”—those backed by their tribes. It is they who continue to carry the cards in their pockets as many of the other political parties recognize and have been know to play to the clan, tribe and family as a way to secure support and get them into parliament.
Many of the political parties continue to argue they stand a better chance of getting into parliament as individuals rather than under the banner of their political parties since such organizations are still seen to be relatively new despite the fact that many of them have existed in the 1960s and 1970s but were effectively either repressed or banned.Because of the historical nature of the Kingdom and its social system based on kinship and long familial relationships the tribal nature of the country has continued in spite of the trimmings of modernization, urbanization and the creation of different civil society institutions.
Consequently bondage stayed and many tribes have continued to maintain their hegemony as political candidates continue to stand on tickets that perpetuate individualism and parochialism. In past parliamentary elections, and no doubt today, the tribal bloc vote was very important in deciding who wins and loses.
This is not to undermine the different perspectives and ideologies in the country lead by the Islamists, Arab nationalists, liberally-based ones but these tend to be weak and holders pertaining to such thinking recognize the drumming of the tribe and family.
The lack of clearly defined umbrellas, and since the majority don’t run on different tickets spelt out by such organizations as political parties, the majority of candidates have made do with slogans rather than providing mechanisms and clearly defined agendas of how they are going to achieve this or that.
Nevertheless this election campaign is proving animated, talk of the town so to speak. The electoral tents are becoming meeting places for people to rally support from different quarters, candidates have used newspaper ads to skim through what they want to do and lots of meetings are taking place to shake hands but not yet to kiss babies as politicians do in the West.
Observers say the situation in the countryside is more lively than it is in the capital where the tents are being used on a daily basis, and more importantly nightly get-togethers for supporters to play cards, meet, mingle and eat lots of free kanafeh, the favorite Arab sweet, and drench down bottles of soft drinks.
A disturbing phenomenon may have revolved around the elections right from the start, and picked up by many newspapers and weeklies that started to invent new terminologies about “political finance” and “politics backed by business” terms that were growing to describe the fact some candidates were trying to secure votes through illicit means of vote buying and candidates sending aid and food packages to potential voters.
The local media where having a field day in suggesting voters were being allegedly offered money, starting from $130 dollars per vote to $1300 depending on the area they were living in, a very generous offer it is being interpreted as. This may have been sensational news reporting, but it created debates in newspapers about the ethics and values of such practices and behavior. They were even some who said the aid packages were to do with traditional hospitality.
Other writers suggested it was morally wrong to offer money for one’s vote and the electorates should not be swayed. The issue of vote-buying may have existed in Jordan during the previous elections, but this time around the reporting of it may have been more transparent; transparency is what the country is going through, and its reportage shows we clearly have nothing to hide.
It was always suggested previous electoral campaigns in Jordan have been more sedate in the past, but not so this time. We’ve heard news about a political kidnapping in one area of the country where a number of youths set upon a candidate and beat him up and landing him in hospital, another candidate’s house was burned and burgled, and some fights occurred here and there between different supporters.
The elections campaign is being seen as a Godsend to the banner-makers who are saying they have never had it so good since the last parliamentary election of 2003; they are continuing to make banners, especially since the government told some candidates to replace some of their banners deemed contrary to public taste and making more money than they ever dreamt of.
Restaurants and sweet shops have been working hard to supply local national dishes of Mansaf of rice and yogurt and knafah to line the stomachs of the different electorates, and of course newspapers, are doing very well, they wait for such occasions, avidly rubbing their hands.
Under their parliamentary quota 6 Jordanian women will be sitting in the 15th Parliament. The quota was introduced in the 2003 parliamentary elections after much pressure from different civil society organizations, but it shows while Jordan is developing on modern lines, the patriarchal system and tribalism may continue to be a hindrance.
The only woman that entered parliament on her own merit was Tojan Faisal in the 1993 national election, she lost her seat in 1997.
That may also be why elections banners and slogans on roads are no more than hackneyed, clichéd phrases emptied from their political content. They are read for what they are as brief a couple-of-words statements, rather than strong, vibrant agendas and political manifestos that promise change and development as is the case in many of the European countries and other regions of the world.
There, political parties are big machines with national and local clout. Everyone, especially the main ones, know who they are, what they stand for, and what will they do once they form the government, or become the main political parties.
In this region of the world the political culture, machinations, value systems are different and have to be treated differently. But in the final analysis, a political party is a political party in which ever region of the world with little differences, and that’s why such parties have to be strong, come out of their closed shops and enclosures and appeal to the masses, become broad-based with clout and be listened to by decision-makers.
In all fairness however, you have to be gentle with our political parties, understand the history and the context of where they came from. Political parties in the West for instance took them hundreds of years to develop and become the institutions they are today.
Much political struggles with pushing and shoving have taken place. But does that mean we have to take that long? Not necessarily, the element of transition from one era to another can take place quickly, but it has to be supported by the state and government. There has to be a political will for democracy, where parties are nurtured rather than left alone or fought.
Jordan is doing well despite different hiccups, but the Arab world in general has to pull itself by the bootstraps if it is to enter into a meaningful political era where representation, democracy, political pluralism is seen as healthy for society. Our problem now is to move faster to catch with different regions of the world and develop politically.
However, let’s for a minute stop and enjoy the political actions of the electoral campaign.
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