The media is widely reporting that supporters of Jordan’s King Abdullah II easily defeated the country’s Islamist opposition in parliamentary elections on Wednesday, reducing their parliamentary seats by almost two-thirds. The final results indicated that the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the country’s largest opposition group and generally considered to be the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, won only six seats, down from 17 in the outgoing parliament. Also defeated were a few known Islamist sympathizers along with a popular IAF female candidate who lost the seat which she had held. Supporters of the King will now hold a majority of the seats in parliament. An IAF leader blamed the group’s defeat on government fraud including what he described as “vote buying”, a charge denied by the government although 17 people were arrested for election tampering including two for vote buying. One analysis indicates that the IAF defeat was the latest in the group’s declining fortunes stemming partly from an ability to deliver on promises to improve economic conditions after capturing a near majority in 1989 elections. The Jordanian government has also been working against the IAF charity network and has arrested IAF members on charges of planning to set up armed militias. A previous post has detailed the connections of the IAF with the International Institute of Islamic Thought, a part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.