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Missed Opportunities for Reform in Jordan
(Washington Post) Editorial - The Jordanian parliamentary election scheduled for Wednesday represents another missed opportunity for the regime of King Abdullah II. The electoral system is engineered to block the two political forces most threatening to the regime: the Muslim Brotherhood and Palestinians, who outnumber Jordan's native population. Gerrymandered districts that leave Palestinian areas underrepresented, and a limitation of party lists to 27 of the parliament's 150 seats, ensure that local tribal leaders will once again predominate in the assembly. The idea that autocracy can survive in a country that borders Israel and Iraq as well as Syria is a delusion. If change in Jordan does not soon come from the palace, it will come from the street.