Moroccan parliament adopts new electoral law
Morocco, Politics, 5/8/2002

The House of Representatives (lower Chamber of the Moroccan Parliament) unanimously adopted Monday a new electoral law that introduces the list voting system instead of the uninominal vote.

Under the new text, the 325 members of the house will be elected through the single-round list voting system. Thirty female MPs will be elected at the national level, while 295 MPs will be elected at the level of constituencies. The text also provides for heavier prison sentences to fight any form of fraud, rigging or falsification.

The coming legislative elections are slated for next September.

During the parliamentary debates on the draft, heads of parliamentary groups underlined the importance of the new text as one that paves the way to honest and transparent elections. Many argued that the new voting system will favor a better representation of the voters within the legislative institution and the emergence of an experienced political elite and will enable a vote on programs, not on persons.

The MPs also hailed the strong measures included in the text to fight all forms of rigging.

Some parliamentarians criticized the government for the delays before tabling the text before the parliament and for failure to open a large debate on the draft with all political parties.

All the MPs who took the floor during the plenary session Monday called for honest and transparent elections to lead to the emergence of a credible law-making institution. They called for the neutrality of the administration, a honest and objective electoral warding taking into account geographic and human aspects to materialize the principle of equality and representation and for the adoption of a simplified ballot paper to help voters fulfil their duty easily.

Some MPs called on political parties to present honest and competent candidates and asked the government to endow the national elections follow-up commission with all material, human and legal means to help it carry out its mission adequately.

Addressing the plenary session, Moroccan minister of the interior Driss Jettou said the draft is part of a general vision for the reform of representative institutions with the aim to consolidate Morocco's democratic institutions.

The text seeks to prepare the adequate environment for the coming elections that must unfold in a climate of freedom, transparency and honesty and that must prompt voters to participate massively in the poll, Jettou said, adding the text "lays the bases of the Morocco of the future and the cornerstones so that the coming elections be surrounded, as advocated by King Mohammed VI, with all juridical, judicial and administrative guarantees, and that the electoral process in Morocco be moralized."

He recalled that the government was keen on consulting all political partners on the draft and that amendments, proposed by political parties were introduced. He added that the text seeks to renovate the electoral system in Morocco, to consolidate the role of political parties and to rehabilitate political action.

As to the number of the house members (325 mps), the minister said this number ensures an acceptable representativity level, taking into account geographic, ethnical and administrative data, the size of the population and its distribution according to prefectures, provinces and regions.

Touching on the 30 seats to be devoted to women at the coming house, Jettou said the decision translates a sincere will on the part of all political parties to transcend all the obstacles hampering the representation of women within elected institutions, seeks to support the evolution of women's role within the society, to render justice to a major component of the society and to benefit from their competence.

He insisted further on the role of the territorial administration in the elections organization, saying the administrative apparatus, at all its levels, will scrupulously abide by the legal prerogatives bestowed on it, noting that during the coming elections all necessary conditions will be gathered to materialize the new concept of authority.

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