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Jordan Political Dissent and Political Repression
All political parties were banned in 1957 and have been illegal
since the establishment of martial law in 1967. In addition,
Marxist-oriented parties were forbidden under the Anti-Communist
Law of 1953. Evidence of illegal political activity is monitored by
the Mukhabarat, or secret police. Persons suspected of engaging in
political activities are arrested by the Mukhabarat and may be
detained without charges for prolonged periods. In 1989 several
Jordanian political parties existed in exile and were believed to
have many secret sympathizers and underground cells operating in
Jordan. These parties included the Arab Constitutionalist Party,
the Communist Party of Jordan, the Palestine Communist Party, the
Islamic Liberation Party, the National Jordanian Movement, the
Muslim Brotherhood, and the Unionist Democratic Association. In
addition, the various Palestinian guerrilla organizations
clandestinely recruited in the refugee camps.
Up to mid-1989, observers concluded that the Mukhabarat
continued to be generally effective in discouraging the expression
of political dissent or political activities within Jordan. It
remained unclear how extensive the political liberalization
inaugurated in the summer of 1989 would become and what role the
Mukhabarat would have. It was also uncertain how greater tolerance
of dissident views would affect political groups outside the
country. As late as 1988, several Jordanian and Palestinian
political groups engaged in terrorism directed against Jordanian
officials and government offices. The Black September group, formed
by Palestinians to avenge the Jordanian army attack on Palestinian
guerrilla bases in Jordan in September 1970, remained committed to
the overthrow of the Hashimite monarchy. Throughout the 1980s, it
claimed responsibility for assassinations of Jordanian diplomats in
various cities of Asia and Western Europe; in 1988 it claimed
responsibility for several bombings that took place in Amman.
Although the government did not officially permit the banned
political parties to participate in the fall campaign for the
November 1989 House of Representatives elections, it ignored the
claims of many candidates that they actually represented such
parties. The campaign for the eighty contested seats was relatively
free of voter intimidation, with the Mukhabarat keeping an
uncharacteristically low profile. A total of 647 candidates took
part, including several former political prisoners who were
released from detention in the summer. The Muslim Brotherhood
supported twenty-six candidates, of whom twenty actually won seats.
Candidates affiliated with other Islamist groups won an additional
fourteen seats. Thus, Islamists emerged as the largest bloc in
Parliament, controlling more than 42 percent of the seats.
Candidates representing various secular parties opposed to the
government won a total of ten seats. As a result, the House of
Representatives convened with a majority of forty-four members upon
whom the government could not count for support, thirty-three
government supporters, and three seats to be determined.
Data as of December 1989
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