Morocco calls applicants to identification to follow up their applications
Morocco, Politics, 1/19/2000

Morocco called on Tuesday all applicants to identification as voters in the UN-projected referendum in the Sahara to follow up their application by checking at the UN identification offices that their name is included in the list released.

In a statement following the publication on Monday of the second provisional lists of voters belonging to "contested" tribes H41, H61 and J51/52, Interior Minister Ahmed Midaoui called "all persons who submitted identification forms," including those who appeared before the identification commission and those who did not for any reason, to go to the nine new identification centers opened by the United Nations in Morocco to ensure that their name is included in the provisional list.

He said these persons should ask for documents justifying the UN identification decision of admission or rejection and, those who were not included in the list should lodge appeals in the legal deadlines. Appeals can be submitted by persons who were not included in the lists, persons who were not convoked and persons who failed to appear before the commission. Persons who contest the ilegibility of anyone included in the list can also lodge an appeal on the basis of an error in the identity or for not meeting one of the established identification criteria.Candidates have up to six weeks to lodge their appeals.

On Tuesday Morocco expressed "astonishment and disappointment" following the results of the identification of "contested" tribes.

The government spokesman, Khalid Alioua, read out an official statement which expresses Morocco's disappointment over the results showing that out of 51,220 applicants, the identification commission only accepted 2,130 persons (4%) as eligible to vote in the referendum in the Sahara.

After he renewed Morocco's adherence to the UN settlement plan in the Sahara, Alioua hoped that the world body will ensure in the appeals procedure required conditions of impartiality and fairness in order to restore to the settlement process all its credibility.

Morocco also says the weak percentage of persons admitted from the tribes to whom the Polisario is denying the right to vote in the referendum only confirms the worries and fears it has repeatedly expressed to the UN secretary general and Security Council, particularly regarding the misuse of oral testimonies.

UN secretary general's spokesman Fred Eckhard said Monday the second part of the list of potential voters includes more than 2,000 eligible voters from the more than 50,000 applicants from tribes that the secessionist Polisario considers ineligible.

The newly-admitted voters belong to what the UN calls "contested tribes" that Morocco considers as sahrawis, and therefore eligible to vote, and to whom the Algeria-backed Polisario denies this right.

Morocco insists that all Sahrawis without any exception should be entitled to say whether the Sahara, a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accords, should remain Moroccan territory or set up on its own.

Previous Stories:
  Morocco astonished and disappointed about identification in sahara   (1/18/2000)
  UN opens appeals procedure for rejected voters in sahara referendum   (1/18/2000)
  Referendum in Sahara depends on participation of all Moroccans of Sahrawi origin   (1/17/2000)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search