Parliament elections

Abdulhadi Majali was reelected as the speaker of the parliament yesterday. This is the third time that he has been chosen during this term. Elaph reads the lopsided results (69 to 38) as being a defeat for the Islamists, who backed his rival Sa'ad Hayel Srour. While some deputies may have taken this into consideration, I believe that a different dynamic is at work.

One issue that might be at play is that the deputies have become comfortable with the way Majali runs the show. A more interesting development is the collapse of the influence of Abulraouf Rawabdeh. His alliance didn't contend for the post as it did last year, when Abdulkarim Dughmi ran. This time Dughmi was the chair of the ballot committee, in a sign that he had a neutral stance in the election. Rawabdeh and Dughmi's alliance didn't seriously contend for the major posts in the permanent committee.

From the looks of it, it seems that Rawabdeh doesn't care anymore. This might be because he has come to realize that Majali is a stronger force in the parliament, and there is no use fighting him. It also might mean that Rawabdeh thinks that the entire parliament might dissolve soon, and so any victory at this stage of the game is pointless.

I would also note that Rawbdeh was part of the Regions' Committee which was set up by the king to study dividing the kingdom into three regions. Apparently, he was unhappy with the whole project, and didn't attend the committee meetings nor did he attend the ceremony when the committee handed its report to the king. I wonder what's on his mind.