Jordan said Wednesday that it would hold municipal elections on Dec. 27, while the opposition threatened to boycott the polls. “The elections will be held in the country's 192 municipalities on December 27,” Information Minister Abdullah Abu Rumman was quoted as saying by the state-run Petra news agency. Abu Rumman said voter registration would end on Oct. 25, adding that 1.2 million people out of Jordan nearly 6.5 million population have already registered. The country's powerful Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm, the Islamic Action Front, say they will boycott the election unless their demands for sweeping reforms, including an elected government, are met. The Islamists pulled out of municipal polls in 2007, accusing the government of fraud. The party also boycotted the general election in November in protest at the electoral law. Meanwhile, a Jordanian tribesman says dozens of masked Bedouin men have blocked three highways outside the capital Amman to press their demands for independent municipalities ahead of December local elections.
