Jordan’s national elections commission announced parliamentary elections would take place January 23, the day after Israelis go to the polls for their own election. Analysts suggested that the date was meant to distract Jordanian citizens from the glacial pace of the country’s democratization. Jordan’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood has already announced it will boycott the elections, creating suspicions that the group intends to apply pressure from the outside, and eventually overthrow the democratic and civil institutions that do exist.

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