Political Opposition, Democracy and Jordan's 2003 Elections

After more than two years of delays, the Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan in June 2003 held national parliamentary elections in an effort to re-engage its stalled political liberalization process. That process started with a great deal of fanfare in 1989, but began to reverse itself by the time the regime signed its 1994 peace treaty with Israel. After the treaty, the deliberalization trends continued and even showed few signs of abating after the succession in the monarchy from King Hussein to his eldest son King Abdullah II in 1999. Given this context, the 2003 elections were deemed especially important by both government and opposition. They were the first since 1997, the first since the dissolution of parliament in 2001, and the first under King Abdullah II. This article provides a brief outline of Jordan’s political liberalization since 1989, with emphasis on the results and implications of the kingdom’s June 2003 national parliamentary elections.