‘Despite similarities with Morocco, Jordanian political parties need more time before reaching parliamentary gov’ts’

AMMAN — Despite several similarities between the political outlooks in Jordan and Morocco, Moroccan political parties have succeeded in forming coalitions that advocated and implemented parliamentary governments, according to experts.

With the fall of the Egyptian and Tunisian regimes at the beginning of the Arab Spring, Moroccan King Mohammed VI proposed constitutional amendments that resulted in a “very important” social dialogue, said Moroccan lawyer and Professor Abdelaziz Nouaydi on Thursday at a workshop on the experiences of Jordanian and Moroccan political parties.  

Moroccan political parties, associations and social organisations seized the opportunity, and worked together to develop draft constitutional amendments and submitted them to the committee responsible for revising the constitution. The committee incorporated some of the suggestions into the constitution, he added.

He cited three categories of political parties in Morocco: national parties that advocate democracy (they either oppose or support the authorities depending on the issue), Islamist parties (some of them acknowledge the authorities, while some question their legitimacy), and administrative parties supported by the authorities.

However, Nouaydi said representatives of some political parties do not remain loyal to the stances of their parties when they form coalitions, as they are dependent on other parties with larger representation in parliament. 

On the other hand, the performance of Jordanian political parties in Parliament is “weak” and is still influenced by the period of martial law from 1957 to 1989, said Amin Mashaqbeh, professor of political science at the University of Jordan and a former minister.

The Jordanian political system is partially parliamentary because elections are based on tribal, regional and personal considerations rather than on a partisan basis, he said at the event, which concluded on Saturday and was organised by Al Quds Centre for Political Studies and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

Mashaqbeh said that amending the Political Parties Law to further encourage parties to participate in polls would help build a better connection between parties and Parliament, suggesting quotas for political parties in the Lower House as another way of boosting their representation.

There are 12 political parties in Morocco.

The fact that there are currently 53 political parties in Jordan, three of which are under-establishment, is in itself an indication of their weakness, except for the Islamic Action Front, which is the political arm of the unlicensed Muslim Brotherhood group, and it has been witnessing divisions, Mashaqbeh noted.

The three-day EU-funded workshop brought together parliamentarians, leaders of political parties, academics and civil society activists from Jordan and Morocco with various ideological views.

Sabri Rbeihat, a political analyst and former culture minister, said Jordanian political parties have not shown a steady progress towards forming parliamentary governments despite Royal initiatives and discussion papers that encouraged the idea.

Discussions between representatives of political parties showed that forming a parliamentary government is not an issue of priority to Jordanian political parties, he said on Saturday at the closing session of the workshop, noting that parties in Morocco were considered a key player in enhancing the country’s stability. 

Oraib Rantawi, the director of Al Quds Centre for Political Studies, said the political experiences of the two countries are “the closest”, acknowledging that the Moroccan experience has achieved more advancements than the Jordanian experience, both at the level of political parties and parliament.

Resident Representative of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Manuel Schubert said such peer-to-peer workshops help advance cross-country affiliations and networks to strengthen democratic reform.