A Berlin tracker says Jordan’s rebranded Umma Party held leadership elections this month

The European Centre for Counterterrorism and Intelligence Studies, a Berlin-registered Arabic-language tracker with a consistently critical line on Islamist movements, published a study this week titled “The Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan: From the Da’wa Function to Rupture and Reconstitution.” Its fifth section, headed in translation “The Umma Party — did the name change or did the structure change?”, states that the reconstitution of the political wing after the ban involved the renaming of the Islamic Action Front to the Umma Party, “leadership elections in September 2026,” and the continued presence of cadres and organisational backgrounds tied to the previous structure. The Files could not corroborate the leadership-election claim in Petra, Reuters, AFP, Al-Ghad or Ammon. It is reported here as a single-sourced claim by an interested specialist centre, not as an established event.

The chronology it sits on is documented. Jordan’s Interior Ministry outlawed Brotherhood activity on 23 April 2025, after authorities said they had thwarted a plot involving rockets and drones; Interior Minister Mazen al-Farrayeh announced that all activities would be banned and promoters held to account. The Islamic Action Front itself was not banned, though its offices were searched. On 25 February 2026 the Independent Election Commission ordered the party to change its name and strip “any religious, sectarian or ethnic connotations” from its statute under Article 5 of the Political Parties Law, giving 60 days. Secretary-General Wael al-Saqqa said the demand “lacks a clear legal basis.” An extraordinary Shura Council session approved the change to Hizb al-Umma in late April by what the party called an overwhelming majority, together with bylaw changes including a party court and full adherence to Jordanian law; the IEC confirmed the new name and constitution on 29 April.

Assessment: The test of April’s rebrand is not the name, it is the personnel, and that is why a leadership vote matters more than any statute. FDD — a hawkish Washington institute, and label it as such — argued on 1 May that the change was cosmetic, noting that parliamentary bloc head Ahmad al-Qatawna sat on the Jordanian chapter’s executive committee and that deputy secretary-general Jamil Abu Baker held senior Brotherhood positions. The Washington designation track has already ruled on the question in advance: Treasury named the Jordanian branch an SDGT in January. A party that won 31 of 138 seats in September 2024 has strong incentives to comply on paper and change nothing that costs it that bloc. Until the names of any elected leadership are published, treat this as a lead.