AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Jordan’s monarchy has touted Wednesday’s parliamentary election as a watershed in the kingdom’s democratization. It is the first after last year’s constitutional amendments that see King Abdullah II gradually relinquishing much of his powers in running the daily affairs of the state to the legislature, although he will continue — for now — to set broader foreign and security policies.

Elections in the kingdom go back 84 years. But Jordan is a small country in a turbulent region and the ruling Hashemite dynasty has had a rocky relation with its parliaments: sometimes encouraging greater political openness to build greater support for state policies, at other times cracking down on legislatures it deems a threat.

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