Morocco adopts amended laws to conform with consitutional rulling; elections on time
Morocco, Politics, 7/4/2002

A cabinet council meeting held Tuesday adopted two amended laws meant to adapt some provisions of electoral laws to a ruling of the Constitutional Council-- that rejected as unconstitutional these provisions-- and a draft decree on the state's contribution to financing electoral campaigns.

Briefing reporters following the cabinet meeting, culture and communication minister, Mohamed Achaari, said the draft amended laws provide for the ineligibility of the members of the Chamber of advisors (upper parliamentary body) to run for elections to the House of representatives (lower chamber).

He explained that since the Constitutional Council ruled that the ban of representatives sitting in one of the chambers from running for elections in the other is an ineligibility case and not an incompatibility one, the proposed amendment will only turn the related provisions into a situation of ineligibility, in accordance with differences between the two situations explained in the constitution.

The minister went on that in order to avoid the mentioning of advisors, persons who acquired the Moroccan nationality and persons sentenced to prison terms in the same article, the draft allocates a separate provision for advisors (article 4).

Concerning the Constitutional Council ruling that the wording of article 20 requiring candidates to be affiliated to a political party could be interpreted as imposing the political affiliation condition, which is contrary to the citizens' rights to adhere to a political party or trade union guaranteed by the constitution, the government adopted a new provision that allows any person to run for elections, regardless of his affiliation to a political party or trade union. Therefore, the new text goes back to the initial wording which stipulates that political affiliation is only an indication produced when necessary among other information the candidate needs to supply when he submits his candidacy declaration.


In order to lift any ambiguity, the new text proposes two provisions: candidates affiliated to a political party should support their candidacy declaration with an accreditation provided by the competent body of the political party under which they will run for the elections. Taking into account the Constitutional Council ruling that "if citizens who do not have a political affiliation are allowed to run for elections, conditions that a candidate should fulfill need to be clarified," the second provision stipulates that candidates should submit in writting an electoral program, a statement of financing sources for their campaigns, and a document comprising a set number of signatures.

Regarding the issue of local and national lists, and considering the Constitutional Council ruling, the government's draft text stipulates that electors vote with a single ballot paper for the candidates list in local constituencies and for the national list, by checking the box reserved to each one of the two.

The government also proposes that provisions related to null votes be clarified by adding a new paragraph that consider as valid the ballot papers checked with a single sign either at the level of electoral constituencies or at the level of the national list.

Other provisions amended by the government concern ballot counting and the elections operations minutes procedures.

The government's draft amendments, which need to go back to both legislative chambers and the constitutional Council for adoption, also set a new regime for the state's contribution to financing the electoral campaign.

Under the amendments, the state's financial contribution will be paid out according to the number of votes obtained by each party (50%) and according to the number of seats obtained by each party (50%). The funds shall be paid after the elections final results are proclaimed.

Meantime, Moroccan minister of culture and communication, Mohamed Achaari, said on Tuesday legislative elections will be held in due time.

Talking to reporters following a cabinet council meeting that adopted amendment proposals to some provisions of the electoral law declared unconstitutional last Thursday by the Constitutional council, the official said "everything will be ready for this date (next fall)."

"Today, we are drafting new laws. Actually it only consists of adapting the existing law to the Constitutional Council decision which declared as valid most of its provisions and, therefore, only a minority of provisions need to be adapted to the Constitution," he told reporters.

Previous Stories:
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  Morocco rejects any aggression against Iraq; free trade agreement sought   (7/2/2002)
  Elections not to be delayed by constitutional council ruling   (7/1/2002)

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