Elections “whatever”: the king fixes his cards for after Trump

Amman | The “impressive” case that Jordan has been in for the last four years of the Donald Trump administration is over. Amman has never hidden that the Trump era, if it is certain to end well, was a heavy burden on the regime. Rather, it is almost the worst, despite the fact that his predecessor Barack Obama pushed the region into the wars of the “Arab Spring” in which the kingdom worked as an employee, sometimes to train the Syrian opposition. And sometimes as a launching pad for the planes of the “International Coalition to Combat Terrorism”, in addition to being and still being a US Army logistics station. However, the threat to the existence of the state and its compulsion in attempting to draw the new Middle East seems less important to the court and the deep state than Trump’s overt politics, especially with the state of supremacy that the Oval Office wielded. about King Abdullah II on many issues, including Hashemite guardianship of Jerusalem, and utter disregard for the Jordanian role. Always present when it comes to Israel and its Arab environment.

Within this reality, it is clear that the decision-making department and the king personally wanted to prepare for the next phase, and that began with the selection of the new government staff led by Abdullah’s personal adviser (see the issue of 16 October), to fulfill the first point on his agenda by holding parliamentary elections last Tuesday “as they come.” Above all because the government needs the confidence of Parliament, in its two parts, Parliament and the notables, in addition to the need for it to ratify any project it presents. Also, the king elected the members of the “notables” (the King’s Council) earlier this time, naming them before the parliamentary elections. As for the holding of the elections “as they come”, it occurred in the midst of a serious outbreak of the new Corona virus in the Kingdom, and the significant increase in the number of infected and deceased, which reached 91 on the eve of election day and about 6,000 injured, the highest number recorded in the country since the start of the pandemic.
And if at first glance it is about periodic parliamentary elections and a constitutional right in a country where the system of government is “representative, monarchical and hereditary”, then the paradox lies in the total absence of Parliament since the declaration of the Defense Law. after the Corona pandemic last March. This parliamentary rupture has not aroused the anger of the street, which sees the elections as an illusory state and incapable of change, especially with the permanent tribal character of the candidates, in addition to the “business” representatives, in light of the very few political presence that always represents the “Muslim Brotherhood” or those who are accountable. in them. Therefore, the applause for the elections, whether by the state or the media, and even civil society organizations for which the elections are a boom season, did not yield an acceptable participation rate, since it reached 29%. The lowest percentage was recorded at the governorate level in the capital Amman (it did not exceed 17%), while the three Bedouin districts were the highest in the participation rate, around 60%.

The participation rate was very low and did not exceed 29%

Not only the results are noted, but even the implicit exclusion of nominations, especially with the clear removal of several of the symbols of the previous parliament, in particular its president Atef Tarawneh, after presiding over the recent “Conference of Arab Parliamentarians”, in the one that issued positive positions against the “deal of the century” and normalization. Tarawneh disappeared after he and his family were indicted on corruption charges and his brother’s money confiscated. On the other hand, and despite the participation of the nationalist and leftist parties under pressure that is clearly related to the continued support of the government, it was a great loss in all the electoral districts in which he ran. A loss also suffered by the supporters of the “Civil State” party, with the division within the party itself, as a result of the resignation of its most prominent figure, Marwan Muasher (former Jordanian foreign minister and first ambassador in Tel Aviv). Likewise, these elections witnessed a drop in the Brotherhood’s list from 14 to 10.
With most of the results appearing until the report is written, questions begin to appear on the legislative side, such as: How will the first session of Parliament be held? How will the king deliver the speech from the throne and what is the mechanism to respond to it, in light of the epidemic outbreak, the fear that the numbers will increase after mixing during the elections and the state of confusion on the health side ? All this in light of the secrecy of what Hebrew sources mentioned about the transfer of the director of the Royal Medical Services of the Armed Forces, Brigadier General Adel Al-Wahhadneh, to receive treatment at the Hadassah Hospital in occupied Jerusalem, which the government considered a state secret, refusing to reveal details in Haría.
Now, all that is left for Jordan, which is prepared in the legislative and executive level, he just has to wait for Biden to install himself as president, to know how things will be handled in the region, what the Jordanian role is required, and also the return that the Kingdom will receive, especially since the five-year memorandum of understanding signed by Washington and Amman in 2018, and according to which the latter will be obtained in a way. $ 1.3 billion annually was in the era of Trump, who tightened the screws of the “United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees” (UNRWA), which increased Jordan’s burdens, as well as the costly dossier Syrian asylum that was from Obama’s legacy and which Trump completely ignored.

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