Jordan’s Voters Hand Setback to Fundamentalists

Islamic fundamentalists suffered their first major democratic setback in the Middle East on Tuesday as official results of Jordan’s first multi-party elections since 1956 strengthened the hand of its secular ruler, King Hussein, both at home and in his pivotal role in the Arab-Israeli peace process.

The defeat was both numerical and symbolic for the Islamist bloc, which has controlled Jordan’s contentious 80-seat lower house of Parliament for much of the last four years and opposed moves by the king and the Palestine Liberation Organization to make peace with Israel.

Monday’s balloting deprived the once-powerful Islamic Action Front of six of the 22 seats it held in the Council of Deputies after Jordan’s last parliamentary polls in 1989. More than half of the 39 Islamist candidates fielded by a party that many analysts had considered the nation’s most potent and best-organized political force lost to an assortment of largely pro-government tribal leaders, former Cabinet ministers, moderate Palestinians and wealthy businessmen.

Also for the first time, the elections brought to power a woman legislator here--Toujan Faisal, a fiercely secular, pro-Western newspaper columnist and former television personality who was the target of a bitter public crusade by the fundamentalists.

King Hussein, in a one-hour press conference after the last results were announced, thanked Jordanians for turning out in record numbers to deliver a “clean and honest” electoral verdict.

The king said the outcome strengthened Jordan’s march toward democracy in a region dominated by autocrats, dictators and unchallenged monarchs--where similar Islamist efforts to take power through the polls have been blocked by armies and rulers.

The king said the elections proved that “we are committed to democracy, to pluralism, to human rights and to making our country an example for others near and far.” He said the results “reflect a growing sense of responsibility which satisfies me and fills me with pride.”

He praised the election of Toujan Faisal, calling it “the beginning of an important road that we will follow” in expanding the power of women in Jordan. Jordan is the only Arab country with universal female suffrage, but only three of the 534 candidates were women.

Jordanian analysts close to the king said the results vindicated his democratic strategy, proving that the most effective way to confront fundamentalism or other radical challenges for power is to accommodate them within the system and allow democracy to take its course.

At 58 and recovering from cancer, Hussein viewed these elections as a critical personal landmark toward what he hopes will be a legacy of democracy after more than four decades of rule.

He reminded reporters in Arabic that, as one who claims to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, he is more than qualified to assess the fundamentalist platform, which includes strident opposition to the Middle East peace process.

“I don’t find in our Islam anything justifying opposition to a just peace,” he said.

Asked whether the election results had sidelined the fundamentalists, Hussein replied obliquely that it was “an evolution in the right direction.” He also indicated that he would not ask the Islamist bloc, which did win more seats than any of Jordan’s 20 newly formed political parties, to help form the next Cabinet. It would include instead an array of “responsible” political leaders not necessarily confined to the new members of Parliament, he said.

On the peace process, the king flatly denied rumors that he plans to meet Israeli leaders in the United States later this month to help speed the stalled peace talks between Israel, Syria and Lebanon. He refused to confirm or deny persistent published reports that he has met secretly in recent weeks with senior Israeli officials, saying only, “We are involved in a peace process, and it’s ongoing.”

The king stressed his belief that Monday’s election will strengthen Jordan’s role as a catalyst in the peace process. A majority of the new Council of Deputies, which was elected by both Jordanian and Palestinian-born voters in a nation dominated by Palestinian refugees, is expected to back the king’s efforts to pursue a peace agenda he signed with Israel in September, as well as his efforts to help broker similar agreements between Israel and its other Arab neighbors.

Although few voters said they viewed the elections as a referendum on the Israel-PLO peace agreement that was signed in September, there were strong indications in races pitting Palestinian candidates loyal to the PLO against fundamentalist Hamas-backed politicians who oppose the peace accord that Jordan’s population remains divided on the issue.

In the vote-rich Baqaa Camp near Amman, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in the world, candidates from both factions won seats in Parliament. Fundamentalist-backed candidate Mohammed Aweida gained about the same number of votes as his PLO-backed rival, Ibrahim Shihdeh.

The fundamentalists did score several impressive individual victories, particularly in urban strongholds of poverty and unemployment in Amman. But several of its strongest candidates among them former lower house Speaker Abdel Latif Arabiyat, suffered dramatic and unexpected defeats.