No: TA /23/11/2007 Date: 15 November 2007 His Majesty King Abdullah II Ibn El Hussein, may God protect him Subject: Appeal to your Majesty to instruct your government to allow the Jordanian Coalition for Civil Society Organizations to watch the parliamentary elections. The Jordanian Coalition for Civil Society Organizations would like to convey to your Majesty its warmest greetings and express to you its pride over your sublime instructions to the government to supervise the parliamentary elections of the 15th House of Representative which will be held on 20 November 2007. They are the elections in which your Majesty affirmed that they will be free and fair. Out of our extreme concern in the Jordanian Coalition for Civil Society Organizations to perform our role in making these elections free and fair, we have started since the month of May this year preparing a team of local observers and held for them 10 training sessions to qualify them to watch the elections in a professional and scientific way. The Coalition has also addressed a message to his Excellency on the parliamentary elections. His Excellency answered that the government has designated the National Center of Human Rights with the assignment that it serves as an umbrella for the civil society organizations in following up the elections. On our part, we contacted the officials of the National Center of Human rights, but were informed later that we were not allowed to watch the elections but to follow up these elections from the halls of the polling centers and that observers shall not be allowed to enter balloting and count voting halls. In light of this answer, the Coalition decided not to participate in watching the elections in view of the opinion of the government. We held a press conference on Tuesday, 6 November 2007, in which we expressed our position and called on the government to review its stand and to allow us as local observers to watch the elections on the basis of the international experience in this field. We have also appealed to your Majesty at the press conference to instruct the government to allow the civil society organizations to exercise real watch of the polling day. Regrettably, no local Jordanian newspaper referred to this appeal which we made to your Majesty although the appeal was reported by most Arab and international space channels and Radios. This in fact is an indication of the intervention of the government censor in the local press when the matter comes to appealing to your Majesty by institutions or individuals who wish to have their voice reach your Majesty. Thus, the Jordanian Coalition for Civil Society Organizations would like to repeat its appeal to your Majesty to allow civil society organizations in an independent status to watch parliamentary elections exactly like the civil society organizations which watched the elections in the fraternal Arab countries of Egypt, Yemen, Morocco, Mauritania, Bahrain, Iraq, Palestine, Kuwait, and Lebanon. Finally, we wish your Majesty good health and happiness, and we wish Jordan, under your leadership, progress and prosperity. Please, accept your Majesty the assurances of our highest considerations. [Signed] President of the Arab Organization of Human Rights in Jordan And Coordinator of the Jordanian Coalition for Civil Society Organizations Attorney-at-Law Hani El Dahlah TOP