Thousands of Jordanians turned out for nationwide protests on Friday over a new election law that activists claim represents a step backwards in the country's political development, dpa reported.
Thousands of activists and opposition leaders converged in downtown Amman in a march headed by Jordan's Islamist movement urging the regime to retract a draft elections law unveiled by the government last week which they claim is "undemocratic."
"We reject this corrupt elections law that deprives people of their legitimate representatives," Hamam Saeed, overall leader of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, told the rally.
Hundreds of independent activists also hit the streets in outlying provinces stretching to Maan, some 200 kilometres south of the capital, denouncing the proposed legislation, according to eyewitnesses.
Political activists say several conditions in the proposed legislation - including a limit of 15 seats in the 138-seat chamber for political parties and what they call uneven districting - fails to break from an electoral system that has long favoured tribal regime loyalists.
Observers say the proposed legislation, which was forwarded to legislators for ratification last week, is a sign that the regime is unwilling to abandon a system that has produced successive "rubber-stamp" parliaments that have given the Royal Court free reign over the country's domestic and foreign affairs.
"This law is an insult to the intelligence of Jordanians," said Muath Btoush, organiser of the Karak Popular Movement, one of dozens of independent pro-reformist coalitions that have emerged in Jordan over the last year.
"We have seen the political changes in Tunis, Egypt and Morocco- the regime can no longer play the same old political games," Btoush told the dpa.
Jordan's King Abdullah II has highlighted upcoming parliamentary elections as key to the success of Jordan's political reform process, which has suffered a series of setbacks and has failed to quell a 14-month-old protest movement.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Jordan's largest opposition movement, and several political parties have vowed to boycott elections should lawmakers fail to make drastic changes to the electoral law.