King: Credible institutions essential for reconciling citizens with elected bodies
Morocco, Politics, 8/1/2002

Morocco's King Mohammed VI on Tuesday called for general mobilization to make the coming elections result in credible institutions and for reconciling citizens with the elected bodies.

"ÉBeing aware of the Nation's supreme interests, we were keen on adopting a strategic approach, making of this year, a year of general mobilization and a suitable opportunity for reconciling the citizens with credible elected councils," said the sovereign in a speech he delivered on the occasion of Throne Day, marking this year the third anniversary of his enthronement.

"Morocco's political upgrading requires a noble approach to elections," he said, underlining that the polls are a political investment to draw and spur economic investments, create new wealth to take up the challenge of integrated development."

The king stressed that he saw to it that all necessary conditions and guarantees be secured "so that democracy be the genuine winner of these elections."

He warned against "short-sighted politicking logic" in elections, and against "making of the elections an end (in themselves) per se." He urged political parties to present "realistic and practical governmental programs" and "well-defined financial means and precise deadlines for the materialization of these programs." "These programs," he said "must provide for solutions to the major issues posed to the nation and to the daily concerns of the citizens."

King Mohammed VI called for vigilance "to avert that this democracy be used by those who dream of a prosperous, comfortable life, in complete idleness, while they propagate discouragement and despair, as if Morocco turned its back to its own History, to its future and to the hopes of its own children."

King Mohammed VI also dealt with the endeavors made to enlarge public freedom and promote human rights. He announced that he would install in the few coming weeks the new Human Rights Advisory Council and the Diwane Al-Madhalim (ombudsman) and renewed determination to see "to the strict respect of the law and of its supremacy and to the equality of all before the law."

He also touched on the reform of justice, stressing the need to continue rehabilitating, modernizing and upgrading justice and "to enable it better fulfil the noble, great and increasingly numerous tasks vested on it." Such a reform, he said, provides an atmosphere of trust, which in turn attracts investors.

Previous Stories:
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