Thirty women to sit in Moroccan Parliament
Morocco, Politics, 2/22/2002

Thirty women will sit in the House of Representatives, lower chamber of the Moroccan parliament, Moroccan culture and communication minister, Mohamed Achaari, announced on Thursday.

The decision, included as a provision in the organic law on elections, seeks to encourage women's participation and representation in the chamber, Achaari, told the press after a government council held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Abderrahmane Youssoufi.

Presently, Only two women are member of the 325-seat House of Representatives.

The government council also approved a text on the drawing of new electoral rolls that will be used in the elections of next September.

Under the new organic law, the 325 members of the House will be elected at the direct universal suffrage according to the list voting system, the minister said.

"The legislative vote will be operated according to proportional representation based on the strongest average survives," he said.

The enforcement of compulsory vote is among the innovations of the new law. The compulsory vote "is a strong signal of our will to reinforce the values of citizenship, the objective being to encourage participation in elections," the minister said, adding "failure to participate in elections seriously jeopardizes democracy."

Electoral fraud and the use of money to buy votes will be severely reprimanded, he said.

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