Morocco, Jordan, Bahrain and Yemen: those are the countries that IDEA may consider when unpacking its new Middle East political party initiative. According to a visiting delegation of Members of Parliament from Jordan, these countries are at a suitable stage in their democratic development, and therefore will be relevant for IDEA to consider for in-depth national studies. The delegation visited IDEA’s headquarters in Stockholm on 15 June 2006 to learn more about IDEA’s work in the Arab Region.

IDEA's political party team suggested to the MPs that apart from a regional dialogue on political parties in the Middle East, a country based approach could be a supplementary option in generating comparative knowledge on political parties in the region.

IDEA's Middle East political party initiative will build on IDEA's ‘Democracy in the Arab World’ project that oversaw the publication of three reports on political party, electoral processes and women participation in Egypt, Jordan and Yemen in 2005. IDEA is planning to expand its activities in the Middle East and North Africa region as soon as resources are made available.

The members of the visiting delegation were: Mr Abdalla Al-Farahat, Mr Abdalla Al-Habahbeh, Dr Adnan Hassouneh, Mr Ahmed Al-Fawair and Mr Zuhair Abu El Ragheb. The Jordanian MPs also met with representatives from the Electoral Processes and Democracy Building & Conflict Management programmes. 

Political Parties Programme Officers James Gomez and Rita Taphorn (Left + Right), Senior Programme Officer for Electoral Processes and meeting facilitator Ayman Ayoub (Middle)

 
Visiting delegation from Jordan