“The detentions represent a dangerous precedent in Jordan’s political history,” the IAF said.

“Such a move runs counter to assurances made by the Prime Minister (Samir Rifai) that he was keen on preserving an atmosphere of democracy and freedom ahead of the polls,” it added.

A police official said all the detainees were later released in two batches Saturday and Sunday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the men were not charged.

Security sources said that the detainees were involved in activities seeking to encourage people to boycott the polling process, but the charges were denied by President of the IAF’s Consultative Council Ali Abul Sukkar.

“The government is again targeting the Islamic movement in the country,” Abul Sukkar said in a statement.

The detainees, all of them University of Jordan students, were visiting one of their professors in Madaba, 30 km West of Amman, when security men broke into the farm where they gathered Saturday night and arrested them, the IAF statement said.

The IAF and its mother group, the Muslim Brotherhood movement, have decided to boycott the November elections, citing the government’s failure to provide adequate assurances that the votes “will not be rigged” as happened in 2007.

The state-funded National Center for Human Rights (NCHR) acknowledged then that certain “irregularities” were detected in the polling process.

The IAF returned only six deputies in the 2007 polls, compared with 17 in the previous elections.

King Abdallah dissolved the lower house of Parliament in November 2009, two years before the completion of its four-year term, amid reports that the chamber had failed to perform its supervisory and legislative functions.

The king directed Rifai to arrange for “fair and transparent” polling process to elect a chamber capable of facing challenges facing Jordan, foremost the ramifications of the faltering Middle East peace process.

The government adopted a new temporary election law that sought to plug loopholes in the previous legislation, foremost vote buying.

However, the IAF and the Brotherhood insisted on the adoption of a new election law involving real political reforms, including a system of proportional representation at the House of Representatives.