There is a sense of deja vu in Jordan following a royal order June 10 asking former Prime Minister Samir Rifai to chair a 92-member committee entrusted with modernizing the country’s political system that will focus on presenting an election and political parties draft laws by November that would then be passed by the government and sent to parliament for a vote.

For years, political parties and voters have been calling for replacing the current single-vote election system, which they blame for producing weak and submissive legislatures. The single vote system was adopted back in the mid-1990s so as to weaken the Islamists’ chances of forming sizeable opposition blocs.

The letter the king sent to Rifai mentioned “reform” only once, stressing instead the need for modernizing the political environment and empowering the youth and women. Jordanians have been there before a number of times. Since the king took over from his late father in 1999 he had written and talked about political reform as a personal goal. 

In 2004, King Abdullah wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal saying, “We believe that freedom and tolerance are essential if human potential is to be fulfilled. We seek civic institutions that respect human rights, including gender equality, and the rule of law. We know that transparent, accountable governance is essential if citizens are to be shareholders in change.”