(MENAFN- Jordan Times) With Jordan's opposition parties lined up to boycott upcoming elections, support is gaining ground for postponing the polls, an option officials and observers say may represent decision makers' "last chance" to save the country's reform process.
With the issuance of a Royal Decree approving the amended Elections Law on Monday, observers and activists say the national debate over elections has shifted from national lists and one-person, one-vote systems to election day itself, with forces within and outside the state urging for holding off the rapidly approaching late 2012 deadline.
"We want these elections to be delayed so that we can finally have the much-promised dialogue on the Elections Law," said Zaki Bani Rshied, deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is among several groups that have boycotted the polls in protest of the law.
Yet calls for holding back elections have not been limited to Islamists and activists.
Current and former officials, senators and loyalists have all come forward over the past week calling for a delay in the elections in order to ensure wider participation in the polls.
"People are coming forward as part of their patriotic duty to stress that it is in our nation's best interest to ensure that the next Parliament is truly representative of the people, and it does not appear that it can happen by the end of the year," said Nabil Sharif, former minister of communications and political observer.
"We need to have elections to increase citizens' participation in the decision-making process, not elections for elections sake."
Officials and observers point to the failure of the government and lawmakers to hold a wider dialogue with various political and social forces on the amended elections law as the root cause behind a growing boycott campaign, a gap they believed can be "easily" bridged by a one- to two-month delay in the polls.
"We don't need a new elections law and we don't have to go back to square one," said Musa Shteiwi of the Centre for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan.
"We simply need the time to hold a larger dialogue as a nation on what we want from these elections."
Observers say one of the major factors behind the growing popularity of the "delay" option among official circles is simply a matter of time.
In addition to providing a larger window to reach consensus over the electoral system, observers say delaying election day would provide an opportunity for the Independent Elections Commission to prepare for what has been touted as one of the most important elections in Jordan's history.
Observers point out that with the elections a few months off, the nascent commission is still without a trained staff or even a headquarters, throwing into question its ability to administer the polls.
"This institution was formed to protect this election and all future elections against interference and irregularities," said Taher Odwan, former minister of media affairs and veteran journalist.
"What was the point of forming this body if we won't give it the opportunity to prepare itself properly?"
2010 vision
Observers warn that pushing forward with elections this year without the participation of large segments of society would have a "devastating" impact on the Kingdom's political development.
Analysts say their concern over the fate of this year's elections stems from Jordan's previous experience in elections, some two years ago, a regional popular uprising and several governments ago.
The polls, which were marred by a Muslim Brotherhood-led boycott, resulted in a single opposition figure being voted to a Lower House which has since lost legitimacy in the eyes of many Jordanians and has become one of the most criticised parliaments in recent history.
Even should Amman secure the participation of major non-Islamist groups between now and the end of the year, observers say a repeat of polls that may have been considered as successful in 2010 would be viewed as a "damning failure" in 2012.
"The Jordanian people have seen the changes that have occurred through the ballot box in Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and even Libya," said Marwan Muasher, former deputy prime minister and architect of the 2005 National Agenda.
"They expect nothing less; [it] will be very difficult to create this atmosphere with essentially the same electoral system on the books and polls only months away."
"There is no reason to paint ourselves into a corner and hold a failed elections," said Muasher, who currently serves as vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment.
Yet unlike the 2010 polls, Islamists will not be the only ones staying away from the polls come this December, observers point out.
Grass-root movements, professional associations and even entire tribes have all vowed to forgo the elections should they be held under the current law, setting the stage for what observers warn may become a nationwide boycott movement the likes of which Jordan "has never seen".
"For the Muslim Brotherhood to criticise the electoral system and boycott an elections is normal for Jordan," said Maher Abu Teir, Ad Dustour columnist and political observer.
"But to have officials and even tribes speak out against the Elections Law is a sign that something is seriously wrong that we have to address if we want to avoid a political crisis."
Forging ahead
Despite the rising calls for delayed elections, the government has shown no signs of turning back on its intentions to hold polls this year, with Prime Minister Fayez Tarawneh stressing as recently as Tuesday that election day is likely to fall within the month of December.
Proponents of 2012 elections argue that rather than enhance, any election delay would deal a setback to the Kingdom's 18-month-old reform process, a move they likened to "playing with fire".
"We have had months of talks and dialogue with various elements of society and political groups over the elections and the Elections Law, we have had plenty of time to prepare for these polls," said Samih Maaytah, government spokesperson.
Officials maintain that early elections paving the way to the formation of parliamentary governments remain the single outlet for citizens to take ownership of political and economic policies that will steer the country's course through an increasingly uncertain future.
"From the very beginning, the state has made it very clear that elections is not the goal, but the starting point of real, meaning full political reform," Maaytah said.
"Delaying the elections any further will only hurt, rather than help the reform process."
Concerns of 2012 election proponents go beyond administrative matters and citizen involvement in the decision-making process.
With the Muslim Brotherhood leading the charge to suspend the polls and revamp the Elections Law, observers express concern that any election delay would be misread by both the movement and the public as the state "caving in" to the movement's demands, and may embolden the group to raise its demands further.
"From day one, the Muslim Brotherhood has been demanding an elections law tailored to it and has been acting as if it were the only political group in Jordan," said Nasouh Majali, former information minister and political observer.
"Right now the state has a golden opportunity to stress that no one single group can hijack the electoral process," Majali said.
Yet as activists expand their boycott campaign and leading figures add their names to the growing lists of officials in favour of a postponed elections, observers say that it will be only a "matter of time" until decision makers re-evaluate their 2012 election aspirations.
"At the end of the day Jordan will be judged on how, not when the elections are held," said Sharif.
"This is a test that for the good of the nation that we cannot afford to fail."
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