Morocco's Abdelilah Benkirane to form new government on Tuesday

Morocco's King Mohammed VI Morocco's King Mohammed VI met Secretary General of the Justice and Development Party (PJD) Abdelilah Benkirane on Tuesday to assign him the task of forming a new government, in accordance with the provisions of the new constitution. Benkirane's party won 107 out of 396 parliamentary seats. The party said it is ready to form a coalition government with all political parties in Morocco, with exception to what they call “Pro-Monarch Party”, referring to the ‘Authenticity and Modernity Party’ (PAM) which chose its place in opposition.
An official in the Islamic PJD stated indicated that fingers pointed to Abdul Hamid Daoudi or Saad Eddine El Othmani, former Secretary General of the PJD to be appointed as heads. The new constitution dictates that the king would choose the country's leader from the party with majority votes. It is expected that the party leadership abides by their parliamentary share in the allocation of portfolios and ministers for a democratic course of action.
‘Arabstoday’ was informed that the number of ministers will not exceed 15, and the alliance which most party leaders refer to is with the Democratic Bloc, a national and historic alliance between the Independence Party and the Socialist Union and Progress and Socialism, whose resistance against the French colonialism is considered a trump card when negotiating with any head of government in Morocco.
Meanwhile, civil society bodies monitoring the elections noted that the most important feature of the campaigns in Morocco was the trend in violence. The campaign launched peacefully at the start, reaching mutual violence by in some regions, and the elections that took place November 25 witnessed several other violations, however not affecting the integrity of the votes.
The organisations stated, in a press conferences held on Sunday in Rabat, that the violations were: not respecting the specified places for the advertisements belonging to the national list, absence of the Tamazight language in the campaign flyers, hanging advertisements and posters illegally, not allowing political parties calling for the boycott of elections into public halls, in addition to using discourse and slogans of a racist and discriminatory nature, using mosques in campaigning, besides the involvement of authoritative figures and supporters in the campaign and using monetary bribes to influence voters.
The monitoring bodies registered the occurrence of arrests, physical violence, and interrogations of Fbruary 20 activists, as well as altercations and clashes between male and female candidates. They also stated by observing the voting process some disappointments, like the low turnout of women inside voting offices, and the deprivation of some of the voters from their constitutional right to vote due to not receiving notices to register in the lists.
Coordinator of Civil Societies for Monitoring the Elections, Al-Habib Kamal, said that their observations did not include all local poll centers and only monitored and recorded violations in around 8000 polling centers out of 38,000 total, adding that the remarks did not focus on the Election Day and did not question the integrity of the November 25 votes.
Kamal stressed that the objective of making these remarks was to grab attention to abnormal issues that occur during the elections, in order to avoid them in the future, indicating the necessity of registering any violations.
Karim El-Sharqawy, on behalf of the Moroccan Association for the Physically Disabled said that the electoral law was not clear concerning preserving the rights of participation of the physically disabled, pointing out that the law did not identify the differences between disabilities. He added: “Sign language for the deaf and mute is not recognised enough in Morocco to grant communication, in order to explain the electoral rights to the disabled, including their right to participate.”
It is noted that the Coordinator of Civil Societies for Monitoring the Elections only approved 1982 observers to monitor the elections, of which 25 per cent were women, while 458 observers were not approved due to not being registered in the elections lists as indicated by law, whereas 25 observers were laid off owing to their being elected as candidates.
Morocco's recent circumstances has shed light on the size and influence of some of the country's political parties. Some have sustained themseleves in the recent elections, such as the Independence Party (60 seats), while some are relatively down, such as the Popular Movement(32 seats). On the other hand, the Democratic Forces Party won only one seat, which puts the end to the party’s history for now, while the PJDstarts a new era with its overhwelming 107 seats.
By winning 107 seats of 395 seats, the Justice and Development Party won 27 per cent of the total seats om Moroccan parliament, while winning 63 per cent in local departments. But what really showed the PJD's strength was winning 2 seats out of 3 which were allocated for 23 local constituencies.
Moreover, the first thing that distinguishes the PJD members in Morocco's parliament is the diversity n the members' ages. The average age is about 46 years old, with the youngest member being a 28-year-old woman named Etemad Alzahidi who won in Temara, as well as engineer Saad Hazem who is of the same age.
The second thing that distinguishes the PJD members is the abundance of literate members in its parliamentary bloc. The lowest academic qualification obtained by its members is the baccalaureate or high school diploma, and the PJD team has 87 members with this certificate. It also has six members with advanced degrees, 37 members with a Ph.D. or equivalent, and 18 members with two certificates in different specialisations.
However, the main thing that distinguishes the PJD members is its representation of 16 regions of Morocco, from Tangiers to Lagouira. Besides presentingCasablanca residents by winning 19 seats, this is equivalent to half the total number of deputies’ circles in Casablanca.
In addition, the party won 13 seats in Riba Sale ZemmourZaer, 12 seats in Tangier Asela, 11 seats in Taza-Al Hoceima Taounate, 10 seats in Marrakech Tensift Haouz, eight seats in Meknes Tafilalt, six seatsin Fez Pullman, five seats in ChaouiaOuardigha, and four seats from the East,and Tadla Azilal. For the first time in the Moroccan parliament’s history, the same party won three seats in Auon in Sahara, and represented the Moroccan diaspora after the success of Nozha Elwafi in Italy. The PJS has 18 members who are women.