The pro-democracy protests spreading across the Middle East have found some eager supporters in Jordan, where thousands took to the street of Amman to demand that Prime Minister Samir Rifal step down and that a new, elected government be allowed to take its place.
Official figures from police said that roughly 3,000 people attended today’s protests, including Islamists, leftists, and union members. As with the protests elsewhere in the region, the combination of inflation and unemployment is combining with long-standing resentment at authoritarianism and producing explosive results.
Under Jordanian law, the King appoints the Prime Minister, the Senate and the entire cabinet, so while the bicameral legislature does have an elected “Chamber of Deputies,” in practice elections mean very little.
Interestingly enough though, the pro-democracy protesters are targeting the prime minister in their calls for free elections, rather than demanding that the king himself step down. This suggests they may envision some sort of constitutional monarchy in which the king retains figurehead powers but relinquishes most of his authority to elected officials.
Jason,
I submit that this posting is highly misleading. Jordan has several well-organized opposition political parties, including the Muslim Brotherhood that boycotted the last elections, pus a population that is 50% Palestinian and to whom a major concern is what happens in the West Bank. For the opposition to assemble only three thousand in these times does not seem much. Further, you note as only "interesting" that they did not demonstrate against the King who holds almost complete power–but demand only to change the prime minister. The significant hing is that they were not demonstrating to change the form of government. Thus your headline is misleading in that it suggests demonstrations against the government similar to others rocking the region. The fact is that it is somewhat quite different from the government-toppling demands in Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere.