G
gilliam
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Is Jordan heading toward a constitutional crisis?
It is rare for Al-Jazeera to report from Jordan on anything, but just now (about 8:00 a.m. Wednesday in Jordan time) I saw a report on a sudden outburst of public anger from opposition parliamentarians over the lack of democracy. Jordan has had an elected parliament for years, but elections are always rigged and the institution has been kept pretty harmless under both the late King Hussein and his son, the current monarch, King Abdullah. I took special interest in the story because I spent a year living there. Jordan is a pretty open society by Arab standards, while the monarchy has maintained a delicate balancing act between its power base (the Jordanian tribes), the growing Palestinian population, the growing power of the Islamists, and the increasingly impatient Western-style reformists pushing for more democracy.
It seems that the immediate spark came from the formation of a new government which took place without the approval of the parliament. Under the Jordanian constitution, the king appoints the ministers, but they are still approved by the (usually docile) parliament. One member specifically accused the government of “marginalizing” the parliament from its constitutional role.
This is essentially breaking news right now, so I’ll post on this again when I can find more.
Contributed by Kirk H. Sowell of Window on the Arab World, and More!
publiuspundit.com/index.php?cat=65
It is rare for Al-Jazeera to report from Jordan on anything, but just now (about 8:00 a.m. Wednesday in Jordan time) I saw a report on a sudden outburst of public anger from opposition parliamentarians over the lack of democracy. Jordan has had an elected parliament for years, but elections are always rigged and the institution has been kept pretty harmless under both the late King Hussein and his son, the current monarch, King Abdullah. I took special interest in the story because I spent a year living there. Jordan is a pretty open society by Arab standards, while the monarchy has maintained a delicate balancing act between its power base (the Jordanian tribes), the growing Palestinian population, the growing power of the Islamists, and the increasingly impatient Western-style reformists pushing for more democracy.
It seems that the immediate spark came from the formation of a new government which took place without the approval of the parliament. Under the Jordanian constitution, the king appoints the ministers, but they are still approved by the (usually docile) parliament. One member specifically accused the government of “marginalizing” the parliament from its constitutional role.
This is essentially breaking news right now, so I’ll post on this again when I can find more.
Contributed by Kirk H. Sowell of Window on the Arab World, and More!
publiuspundit.com/index.php?cat=65
Will be intersting to hear more on this.