The attitude was announced in a statement issued at the end of a meeting by the Higher Coordination Committee of Opposition Parties.

“When the executive insists on an election law that fails to live up to international standards and to ensure the minimum of transparency, the participation in the polling process becomes a questionable issue,” the panel’s spokesman Hamzeh Mansour said.

Opposition leaders made it clear during the meeting that their parties “needed more time to study the issue and consult their bases before taking a final decision,” added Mansour, who doubles as Secretary General of the Islamic Action Front (IAF).

King Abdallah dissolved the lower house of Parliament last November, two years before the completion of its four-year term, amid charges that the chamber had failed to perform its legislative and supervisory functions.