Morocco Islamists Claim 'Historic' Vote Breakthrough
Morocco's moderate Islamists said Saturday they were poised for an unprecedented electoral win, the latest religious party to achieve spectacular gains on the back of the Arab Spring.
A month after Islamists won Tunisia's post-revolution election and days before their predicted surge in Egyptian polls, their Moroccan counterparts claimed to have achieved a similar breakthrough without bloodshed.
With official results expected Sunday, the Justice and Development Party (PJD) -- a moderate Islamist movement which accepts the monarchy -- said its own figures gave it a clear edge.
"The figures which we have allow us to say that we will have over 100 seats" out of the 395 in parliament, PJD parliamentary bloc leader Lahcen Daoudi said, adding that his party notched up wins in rural areas where it had little traditional support.
"We have already won over 80 seats and I can tell you that we will easily have over 100 seats. This is a historic turning point," added Mustapha el Khelfi, managing editor of Attajdid, the PJD's mouthpiece.
As longtime rulers were being toppled in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, Morocco had its own pro-reform protest movement earlier this year.
But King Mohammed VI, the latest scion of a monarchy that has ruled the country for 350 years, stemmed the Arab Spring contagion by offering reforms curbing his near absolute powers.
According to the new constitution overwhelmingly approved in a July referendum, the monarch must now pick the prime minister from the party which wins the most seats in parliament, instead of naming whoever he pleases.
The king proposed a new constitution on March 9, just 17 days after thousands of people took to the streets across Morocco calling on him to give up some of his powers in the biggest anti-establishment protests in the country in decades.
The Justice and Development Party has gradually increased its share of the vote in Morocco, seen as one of the most stables countries in the region.
After winning just eight seats in 1997, it surged in popularity, scooping 42 seats in the 2002 election, the first of King Mohammed VI's reign.
It then increased its share in the last election in 2007 when it finished second with 47 seats.
The party focused at first on social issues, such as opposition to summer music festivals and the sale of alcohol, but has shifted to issues with broader voter appeal like the fight against corruption and high unemployment.
During the current campaign it promised to cut poverty in half and raise the minimum wage by 50 percent.
Unlike the banned Islamist opposition group Justice and Charity, the Justice and Development Party pledges its allegiance to the monarchy.
Even with over 100 seats, the party would have to form an alliance with other parties to govern.
Analysts said that even if it heads a governing coalition, the party would not be able to impose any program to the assembly since it would have to appease its coalition partners and the international community on whose investment and tourism the country relies heavily.
The Islamist party's main rivals in the polls were Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi's center-right Independence party and the Coalition for Democracy, an eight-party pro-monarchy bloc that includes two of the five governing parties.
"The public powers did everything to ensure that this vote was a healthy and transparent democratic moment," Communications Minister Khalid Naciri said after polling stations closed on Friday, adding "electoral competition was tough.”
Provisional interior ministry figures put the turnout at 45 percent, up from 37 percent from the last parliamentary election in 2007, but lower than the 51.6 percent turnout recorded in 2002.
Analysts said a high voter turnout would give credibility to the constitutional reforms and throughout Friday commercials broadcast on television urged Moroccans to "carry out their national duty" by voting
Morocco's pro-reform February 20 protest movement, responsible for the protests staged just before the king announced his plans to reform the constitution, had called on voters to boycott the elections.
It says the constitutional reforms are insufficient.
Source: Agence France Presse
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