Names and history of 26 Parties running for September 27 polls
Morocco, Politics, 9/17/2002

26 parties are running for the September 27 polls to elect the 325 members of the House of Representatives (lower chamber of the Moroccan).

Some of these parties are nearly 60 year old while others are new born.

Three out of the 26 parties on the lists were set up before the country's independence in 1955. The first of these is the Moroccan Communist Party (PCM) that was set up in 1943, banned in 1952, before reemerging in 1969 under the name of "the Party of Liberation and Socialism" (PLS). The party was legally authorized in 1974 under the name of "the Party for Progress and Socialism" (PPS).

Coming next is the Istiqlal Party (PI) that was set up in 1944 and then the Choura and Independence Party (PDI) created in 1946.

Twelve parties were created between 1956 and 1999 while eleven parties came into being with the advent of the new millenium. Seven out of these eleven were created less than a year ago while one party was set up two months ago.

The first party to have been set up after the independence is the Popular Movement (1959). It will be followed eight years later by the Popular Democratic and Constitutional Party (1967) that will be later on renamed Party of Justice and Development" (PJD).

Besides the PPS that was legally authorized in 1974, three parties were born in the seventies. These are the Action Party (PA/1974), the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP) that stemmed in 1975 from the National Union of Popular Forces (UNFP/1959) and the national Rally of independents (RNI/1978).

Three new political parties came into being in the eighties, namely the National Democrat Party (PND) in 1981, the Constitutional Union (UC) in 1983, and the Party of the Social Center (PCS) in 1984.

Four other parties were set up in the nineties. These are the National Popular Movement (MNP) in 1991, the Social Democrat Movement (MDS/1996), the Socialist Democratic Party (PSD/1996), and the Party of the Democratic Forces Front (FFD/1997).

The four parties created in 2001 are the Democratic Union (UD), the Party of Citizen Forces (PFC), the National Ittihadi Congress (CNI) and the Party of Reform and Development (PRD).

2002 was marked by the creation of six new parties the Alliance of Freedoms (ADL), Citizenship Initiatives for Development (ICD), the Party of Renewal and Equity (PRE), Al Ahd Party, the Party of Environment and Development (PED), and The Moroccan Liberal Party (PML).

The Party of the Unified Socialist Left (PGSU) is the most recently created party which is only two-month old. It is the result of a fusion between the Organization of Democratic and Popular Action (OADP), the Movement of Independent Democrats (MDI) and the Movement for Democracy (MPD).

Only sixteen parties had participated in the latest polls held in November 1997. With the exception of the MPD, all the participating parties gleaned seats at the House of Representatives, their number ranging between one seat for the Choura and Independence Party to 57 seats for the USFP.

Seven out of these parties (USFP, PI, PPS, RNI, MNP, PSD and FFD) formed in 1998 a socialist-led coalition government, bringing to power a center-left cabinet after some 40 years of right-wing rule.

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