Die Welt

Royalists loyal to King Abdullah II have again won a majority of the 110 seats in the Jordanian parliament, in the second general election to be held since King Abdullah II ascended the throne in 1999 on the death of his father King Hussein.

Most of them had stood as independent candidates. According to unofficial results the Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and the only significant opposition party, won only seven of the twenty-two contested seats - down by ten - though some of its members may have won as Independents.

The IAF, which ran under the slogan ‘Islam is the solution’, accused the government of manipulating the election by allowing members of the military to vote, though they are disqualified. Jamal Abu Bakr, the Brotherhood’s vice-president, warned that this would have negative consequences for the further political development of the country.

The daily newspaper Al-Arab al-Jawm reported on Wednesday that some votes had been bought. Interior Minister Eid al-Fayes had admitted this the day before amid reports that arrests had been made in connection with electoral fraud.

For the first time a woman was elected to the parliament in Amman. Dentist Falaka al-Jamani was returned for the Madaba constituency in the south-west of Amman, one of 199 women among the 885 candidates competing for the votes of 2.4 million electors. The government reserved six out of the 110 seats for women to give them more influence on the political process.