WASHINGTON, Feb 22, 2012 (AFP) - Two Jordanian opposition groups on Tuesday called for constitutional reform in their country during a visit to Washington, denouncing what they said were corrupt practices under King Abdullah II.
"A corrupt dictatorship is what we have in Jordan," Adnan Atyat, representative of the Jordan National Council (JNC), told a press conference on Capitol Hill.
Atyat alleged that $7.4 billion in foreign aid had gone "missing in the last 10 years" from government coffers.
"We're for constitutional monarchy but a genuine one. We want the king to stay in his palace and leave the business of running the government," added Abdul Salam Al-Muall, a member of the Jordan National Movement (JNM).
"So far the king has been dragging his feet. The king is too slow in making the changes we need. He needs to speed it up," he said, adding: "The countdown for regime change has already begun in Amman."
The JNC, formed in 2007, and the JNM, founded in 2011, do not have government approval, officials with the groups told AFP.
Abdullah last year pledged a new electoral law he said would result in "a parliament with active political-party representation ... that allows the formation of governments based on parliamentary majority."
Opposition groups, particularly the vocal Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm the Islamic Action Front, have demanded sweeping reforms that would lead to a parliamentary system of government in which the premier would be elected, rather than named by the king.
emp/ao/sst
