King Mohammed vows to consolidate democracy
Morocco, Politics, 10/14/2000

Morocco's King Mohammed VI on Friday vowed to consolidate democracy, putting a special emphasis on the role of local councils.

"The state is firmly determined to endeavor with perseverance and efficiency to give to the democratic practice its genuine and sound significance marked by the freedom of choice," said King Mohammed VI while opening the fall session of the parliament.

The king voiced will to continue working for consolidating the democratic construction, "starting by is fundamental structure: local councils."

The King stressed the need to renovate the councils management to make them contribute to spurring investments. "In order for these councils to play their role as a basic economic and social actor, time has come to substitute their bureaucratic management with a democratic management, responsible and spurring investment," he said.

The king called, in this connection, on the government and the parliament to study, in a spirit of responsibility and fruitful dialogue, the working out of texts likely to help local councils play the role of acting partner in Morocco's development process.

Touching on regional economic take off in Morocco, King Mohammed VI stressed the need that each regional council acts according to a strategic global and harmonious vision for the development of the region. He also underlined the importance for each region to have a bank for investment projects likely to be carried out within the same region or in partnership with other regions.

Under a 1996 constitutional amendment, Morocco is warded into 16 regions.

The king also called for creating a single investment counter at the regional and provincial levels and to set reasonable and short deadlines to decide on investment files.

King Mohammed VI also voiced determination to accompany the reform of the communal charter with advanced reforms of the electoral code, the electoral and local warding, local finance as well as the statutes of communal property and executives, "our ideal objective being the creation of harmonious spaces of development and the institution of local tax system spurring investments."

The electoral code will be revised towards the consolidation of democracy and the freedom of choice through improving electoral mechanisms with a view to guaranteeing transparency and free electoral choice, the moralization of the electoral process to give it credibility, he said.

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