King Hassan II confirms election date
Morocco, Politics, 8/29/1997

Moroccan monarch King Hassan II informed several ministers that they can give up their ministerial responsibilities in order to be devoted to the upcoming parliamentary elections. During a meeting of the cabinet of ministers at the beginning of August this year, Idris El Basry, the interior minister, submitted drafts of two regulatory laws dealing with the parliament and advisors. The Governmental Council ratified the two drafts together with a decree draft calling for an exceptional session of the parliament.

The number of sacked ministers who are members of right-wing parties is 19, while 14 ministers who are members of technocratic parties kept their portfolios. The human rights minister was sacked last April.

The decision of the Moroccan monarch put an end to rumors that circulated about putting off the election until the end of next spring, to the extent that El Elm newspaper which is issued by the opposition Independence Party asked the government to respect its commitments to complete the election.The elections will be held on October 15.

On June 15 Interior Minister Idris El Basry submitted a new text of the two draft regulatory laws dealing with parliament and the council of advisors to the national committee. The national committee responsible for monitoring the elections was formed as part of the charter of honor. Through those two draft laws the government proposed the number of seats in the parliament to be 300, and for the council of advisors to have 255 seats. During the meeting, the minister of interior told everybody that the two-phase election proposal submitted by opposition parties is the opposition parties' request for the government's decisiveness regarding the phases of the parliamentary elections and also the distribution of seats among the districts and the different chambers in the council of advisors.

The formation of the second chamber, "the council of advisors," started to appear as it was constituted of the right wing parties and the independents in addition to some middle parties which got the greatest number of seats during the election of local groups and trade unions. Thus, the upcoming election is very important to the opposition parties as they will try make up for the last election in the hope that they get a sizble majority in the first chamber, "the parliament," that will give them the chance to form the rotation government.

Previous Stories:
  Floods sweep Morocco   (8/27/1997)
  International training festival in Morocco   (8/25/1997)
  Morocco celebrates revolution's 44th anniversary   (8/21/1997)

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