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Jordan's Limited Democracy Leaves Voters Discontented
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"This is the first time I do not vote," Asmaa Zuhair, 33, said Monday as she headed to work in Amman. "Nobody deserves my going through the trouble of voting. What have they done for us? Nothing, absolutely nothing."
The Islamic Action Front, Jordan's version of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, boycotted summer municipal elections over allegations of vote-buying and other fraud. The front is fielding only 22 candidates in Tuesday's vote. Most of them are seen as moderates within the group.
The government and its supporters have used the 2006 Palestinian election victory of the armed Islamic movement Hamas as an excuse to slow democratic reforms, said Rantawi, of the Al-Quds Center.
"In dictator regimes" all over the Muslim world, "the Islamist threats have been taken as a pretext, an excuse, to delay the whole process" of democracy, he said.
Analysts predict that opposition parties will win roughly 20 percent of the seats and that the Islamic Action Front will either hold on to its 16 seats or lose some.
There have been more allegations of vote-buying this year than in the 2003 elections. Candidates are accused of giving away everything from cellphones to gas heaters, sometimes at campaign tents.
"This is as good as it gets," a man wearing a jacket but no tie said last weekend as he emerged from one of the tents. He was still chewing some of the free mensef -- a dish of rice, yogurt and lamb -- provided inside.
"We might as well take advantage of it now," the man said. "When they become members of parliament, they won't remember us. Not until the next round."
Mousa reported from Amman.
