AMMAN — The Kingdom’s streets are expected to be largely free of demonstrations on Friday as the protest movement continues to lose steam during the holy month of Ramadan.

Opposition parties and professional associations have bowed out of weekly protests, leaving this Friday the second in less than a month without a rally organised by a major political force.

While the mainstream political opposition stays home this Friday, independent and youth activists say they will keep the protest drive alive in the southern region, which has served as the backbone for the 18-month-old movement.

In a series of planned rallies in Karak, Tafileh, Maan and Shobak, so-called popular movements will urge citizens to forgo participation in upcoming elections, organisers said.

According to a statement issued by the popular movements, the rallies are the latest in a series of measures designed to pressure authorities to suspend preparations for the parliamentary elections, expected to be held in December. 

Political parties, professional associations, popular movements and tribes announced last month that they would boycott the polls over a controversial Elections Law they claim is “undemocratic”.

Activists mainly object to an article in the law restricting citizens to one vote at the district level: a stipulation they describe as a “carbon copy” of a one-person, one-vote electoral system, which critics claim places political parties at a disadvantage.