• Abu Olbeh: The problem with political life lies not only in the laws, but also in how they are implemented
• Abla Abu Olbeh: Most political forces in Jordan remain outside the legislative sphere
• Abu Olbeh: There can be no political balance while most political forces remain outside parliament
• Abla Abu Olbeh: We need political blocs, not isolated individual breakthroughs in parliament
• Abla Abu Olbeh: Freedoms are shrinking and political modernization has veered off course
• Abu Olbeh: Daily regulations and policies have undermined the positive aspects of the political parties and election laws
• “No vibrant political parties without freedoms,” Abu Olbeh says, criticizing the state of political modernization
• Abu Olbeh: Political modernization cannot be achieved through laws constrained by restrictive regulations
• Abu Olbeh: What happened after the laws were passed suggests that political modernization is not moving in the right direction

Abla Abu Olbeh, the first secretary-general of the Jordanian People’s Democratic Party, Hashd, has called for rebuilding broader national and political unity among Jordan’s various political forces. She argues that the fragmentation that has affected political parties, particularly leftist and nationalist groups, has weakened their ability to influence political life and parliament and produced a poor performance in the most recent parliamentary elections.

In an extended interview on the radio program Your Voice Is Heard, broadcast by Radio Al-Balad, Abu Olbeh said Jordan’s political forces need to reassess their priorities and build alliances around the domestic issues they share, particularly poverty, unemployment, public debt, civil liberties and the defense of democracy. Regional disagreements, she said, should not be allowed to become a permanent source of division within national political work.

She pointed to the former Opposition Parties Coordination Committee, which brought together political groups with different ideological backgrounds and managed to establish a broad common ground before disagreements over the conflict in Syria led to its division. That dispute, she said, could have been contained rather than allowed to dismantle coordination among the parties.

“Regional issues are not unimportant,” she said, “but they must remain connected to the fundamental local concerns.”

A major strategic mistake

Abu Olbeh also directed criticism at leftist and nationalist parties, holding them partly responsible for their weak parliamentary representation. Their failure to contest the most recent elections through a unified effort, she said, was a “major strategic mistake.”

She argued that political forces should not measure success merely by whether a party or an individual wins a parliamentary seat. The real objective, in her view, should be the creation of political and parliamentary blocs with genuine weight in the balance of power and voting inside the House of Representatives.

“Individual breakthroughs are not enough to change the balance of power in parliament,” she said. Political forces need blocs capable of collective political action, coordinated voting and defending clear programs.

The Jordanian National Front as a starting point

Discussing the possibility of rebuilding broader political frameworks, Abu Olbeh said the Jordanian National Front could provide a starting point for repairing internal national relations, although it does not yet include all political currents in the country.

The Front includes political parties, public figures and institutions, but does not represent the entire leftist and nationalist spectrum. Islamist forces, meanwhile, are organized under a different framework known as the Resistance Forum.

Still, she argued, the existence of separate political bodies should not prevent cooperation on shared issues. Different political forces, she noted, have coordinated their positions and activities on a number of national and political issues, particularly those related to public freedoms.

Abu Olbeh said the common national agenda should form the foundation of political alliances and relations. Poverty, unemployment, public debt and laws affecting civil liberties, she argued, are broad enough to bring together parties from across the political spectrum, including right-wing, leftist, nationalist and Islamist groups, even where regional disagreements persist.

National unity before party unity

Abu Olbeh linked the unity of political parties to the broader question of national unity, arguing that Jordan faces pressures and challenges that require the support of society and organized political forces, rather than a weakening of public space.

“Those who protect the country are, by necessity, its own people,” she said.

In her view, protecting Jordan from external challenges requires cooperation between official institutions and society, including political parties, professional associations, unions and other organized groups. She warned against treating political parties and society as sources of threat rather than as part of the country’s internal strength.

Freedoms and political life

Abu Olbeh linked the weakness of political parties directly to the broader climate of public freedoms, insisting that civil liberties are not privileges granted by authorities in one period and withdrawn in another, but constitutional rights.

She said parties face restrictions when organizing some public events and argued that holding activities inside party headquarters cannot replace direct engagement with the public. Some party offices, she noted, can accommodate only a few dozen people, while political organizations need to reach society directly and discuss the issues and risks facing the country.

Political parties, she said, continue to issue statements and produce studies on laws and public policies, but their ability to mobilize and communicate with people has become increasingly limited.

Political modernization or a retreat in practice?

Abu Olbeh criticized what she described as a growing gap between the positive provisions contained in the Political Parties Law and the Election Law and the regulations, instructions and day-to-day policies governing their implementation.

“The problem is not always in the legislative texts themselves,” she said, “but in the way they are translated into regulations and procedures.”

She pointed to provisions in the Political Parties Law that, in her view, support student rights and political activity at universities. Yet student council elections remain suspended, she said, while some young people continue to fear joining political parties. Others, she added, have been forced to leave their parties because of employment-related requirements or concerns over their professional careers.

This, she argued, has created a contradiction between laws that encourage political participation and practical realities that restrict it.

A parliament that reflects the balance of political forces

Abu Olbeh said the gradual increase in the share of parliamentary seats allocated to party lists represents a relatively positive step, but it remains insufficient to create the political balance she believes Jordan needs.

The continued exclusion of large segments of the country’s social and political forces from legislative and executive institutions, she argued, creates an imbalance and leaves public life more vulnerable to intervention.

A strong parliament and an effective opposition, she added, should not be seen as threats to the state. On the contrary, she said, they are among the foundations of political stability.

“An opposition is not the opposite of the state,” she said, arguing that political forces critical of government policies, including economic policies, can still be deeply committed to the stability and survival of the country.

The economy and the citizen

Responding to criticism from callers who accused political parties of being disconnected from issues such as poverty, unemployment, rising prices and public debt, Abu Olbeh rejected the idea that all parties should be treated as a single political bloc.

She acknowledged, however, that weak grassroots and political engagement remains a problem that parties need to address.

On public debt, she warned that continued reliance on loans and foreign assistance, without major productive projects, would keep the debt burden rising. She called for redirecting the economy toward productive sectors, particularly industry and agriculture, and linking them to education, healthcare and essential public services.

A service-based economy, she argued, cannot remain the sole foundation of economic policy. Building a productive economy is essential to addressing unemployment and improving living standards.

No separation between security and the economy

Abu Olbeh rejected the idea that Jordan’s external threats can be separated from the economic and living conditions of its citizens.

Security, sovereignty and the economy, she said, are interconnected. Any threat to water resources, energy security or the state’s ability to carry out development projects has a direct impact on citizens’ lives.

Regional risks should not be treated as distant issues unrelated to the public, she argued. Water, energy, development and the economy are all part of national security.

Her argument returns, ultimately, to the same central point: Jordan’s political parties cannot confront the current challenges alone, and no single party, regardless of its size, can address problems related to freedoms, the economy or political representation on its own.

The political forces, she said, need to rebuild their experience from within and acknowledge their own mistakes. Self-criticism should not be limited to the state or the broader political environment. It must also include political parties that have failed, at times, to build stable alliances or manage their internal disagreements.

The list of issues that could unite Jordanian political forces remains long, public freedoms, unemployment, poverty, debt, legislation, political representation, the future of political modernization, local democracy, the national economy and the external challenges facing the country.

For Abu Olbeh, unity among political parties is not merely an organizational matter. It is tied to the ability of Jordanian political life to regain its balance and to the ability of different political forces to reconnect with society and work on the issues affecting people’s lives.

The central message she directs to political parties is clear: competition should not turn into fragmentation, and disagreements over regional developments should not erase the national issues that remain common ground for everyone. A more diverse and representative parliament, she believes, will remain difficult to achieve if political forces continue to enter electoral and social battles separately, each on its own.