AMMAN — Mainstream Islamist movement has received a new blow
to its political stature after losing big in the
Jordan Engineers Association(JEA) elections last week. The recent loss came few weeks after the Islamic
Action Front Party (IAF) decided to boycott next March provincial, municipal,
and Greater Amman council elections.
اضافة اعلان
Friday’s JEA
elections were marred by allegations of irregularities, fraud, and government
interference leading the Islamist bloc to announce its withdrawal from the race
on Saturday. A coalition of leftists and independents, Numow, swept the
provincial branches councils and defeated the Islamist bloc ending years of
their control of the central body of one of the largest associations in the
kingdom.
The Islamist
biggest loss was in the governorates, especially
Zarqa which has been a
stronghold for many years.
Political analysts
and experts interviewed by
Jordan News said that the decision to refrain
from contesting the upcoming municipal and provincial elections will weaken the
image of the party and decrease its ability to engage in political activity.
Political analyst
and columnist, Omar Kallab, told
Jordan News that the ideology of
political Islam in our country needs a radical review as “society has moved in
a different direction and radical Islam no longer represents it, especially in
light of new and more current types of movements”.
“I am afraid that
this partisan mentality will continue to cause the party more and more losses
while creating a void and loss in the political scene, but the biggest loss
will affect the party itself,” said Kallab,
“If this mentality
continues to control them, I expect that the party will see further losses, and
will become a marginalized body,” he added.
Writer and
journalist, Hilmi Asmar, told
Jordan News that some parties are working
to narrow and limit the role of Islamists, “and if that happened, it would be
very bad, especially since they are a major component of Jordanian society”.
Asmar added that
“eliminating the moderate Islamic trend will create extremist Islamic
movements, and this will certainly threaten societal peace”.
Lawmaker Saleh
Armouti, told
Jordan News that “the role of the Islamists is evidently
diminishing, especially after their loss in the JEA elections.
Armouti added that
“if they found the general atmosphere appropriate, they would have participated
in the elections, especially since they had participated in previous elections,
but what is happening now must be a strong message for the decision-maker, that
Jordan has clearly retracted in freedom of opinion and expression. A matter
that does not serve the state in any way, especially in the complex political
conditions we are currently facing, which requires that we all be on the same
boat”.
Secretary-general
of the
Islamic Action Front, Murad Al-Adayleh, told
Jordan News that the
Islamists’ reluctance to participate in the municipal elections “is a result of
lack of freedom of speech that was clearly seen at the JEA elections”.
Adayleh added that
“some of our supporters asked us not to participate in the previous round of
the elections because of the interference of some parties which leads to
dishonesty, but despite that we insisted on participating. I can say that what
happened in the JEA elections confirmed to us the soundness of our decision
that we better not participate in the upcoming elections.”
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