Law benefits only Muslim Brotherhood

Initial disclosures about Jordan’s  draft elections bill  by Raddad Al-Qallab,  published in Arabstoday yesterday, reveal the intentions of the government, particularly its head, who  divulged on many occasions that his inclination is towards the 1989 elections law while he rejects proportional representation. The government’s formula for the  elections law will be delivered to parliament within a few days, and it is my hope that parties who  preview the bill before the MPs vote, will not pass it  and will return it to the government in order that it may be guided in part by the outcome of the National Dialogue Committee, and at least adopt proportional representation, in some form, so that the idea of depending on it in the future is considered, until we reach full proportional representation of  100 per cent. What was apparent from the leaked document is that no matter what the government and its supporter do, it will be to the benefit of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) while the other parties will not benefit, namely those parties and political factions which suffer fragmentation, and have not learned from the experiences of the Arab Spring. The opportunities for political parties under this law will remain limited, because they will be deprived of votes on the national level, and deprived from conducting alliances on the national level as well. The MB is allied to the Salafists in Egypt, although there are many differences between the two, but they recognise what is  mutually beneficial so they formed an alliance which  resulted in the establishment of the People’s Assembly. They are on their way to dominating the Egyptian government, and we say nothing but ‘congratulations’. We should welcome the elections results if they are organised through true democratic process and  law and  that  they represent every member of society through 100 per cent proportional representation -- as was the case in Tunisia and Morocco and in more than 140 other countries around the world. In this way, we would not have reason to fear if the Islamic factions win outright, provided the elections are carried out in a democratic manner. What we would fear is if the bill leads to a state of confusion, as was the case regarding the  law of municipalities integration. We do not want any bill to create confusion once again among our citizens. Any law which does not embrace  the full participation of the political parties, will not be a faithful and authentic law.  Have no doubt,  a parliament which emerges with a water-tight  elections law is a powerful parliament. The adoption of  proportional representation  will help to put an end to factionalism and tribalism.