However, the IAF Secretary-General Hamzeh Mansour told Arab News that his party would consider being part of the Jordanian executive only after sound and fair elections.

Media reports said that the new Premier Maruf Bakhit met Islamic leaders over the past few days and offered them five portfolios in the new administration which King Abdallah asked him to form after sacking the government of Prime Minister Samir Rifai last week after a series of protests, which were partly inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

“The matter is not five or 10 portfolios, but rather we exclude taking part in the government at this juncture and believe we can serve our country better in the opposition,” said Bakhit.

“We are monitoring the situation to see to what extent the new government will be serious in conducting reforms that lay the ground for sound and democratic elections,” he added.

In his letter, King Abdallah urged Bakhit to take the necessary steps to ensure the adoption of “real reforms” which he said had been so far hindered by pressure groups and hesitation on the part of previous cabinets.

The appointment of Bakhit to replace ill-fated Rifai sparked early negative reactions on the part of Jordanian Islamists and other allied left-leaning opposition parties, given a widely held perception in the country that the premier-designate was responsible for “rigging” the 2007 parliamentary elections.

The charges, which were upheld by the state-funded National Center for Human Rights (NCHR), found credibility in the outcome of the polling process that led to a drastic drop in the number of IAF deputies at the 110-member lower house—to six from 17 in the earlier chamber.

“We are now interested in a new election law that leads to the election of a parliament that truly represents the people,” Mansour said.

The Brotherhood and the IAF boycotted the Nov. 9, 2010, elections after Rifa’s government failed to adopt a new election law that ensures a system of proportional representation.

During a rare meeting with Abdallah earlier last week, leaders of the Islamic movement insisted on a “parliamentary government” which implicitly means the dissolution of the recently elected lower house and appointing leaders of the largest parliamentary blocs as prime ministers instead of the present pattern of action whereby the monarch chooses premiers according to his discretion.