USFP may hold biennial congress, spokesman

The sixth congress of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP) held in Casablanca March 29-31 will examine the possibility to hold a congress every two years, said in Rabat Friday the congress spokesman, Khalid Alioua.

The congress will discuss this possibility to be in tune with a decision made in this respect by the International Socialist association, the spokesman said.

To a question on the withdrawal of some USFP militants from the congress, Alioua said the congress chairmanship made it clear that the meetings were open to everybody and the USFP first secretary was clear on this point in the report he presented at the opening session when he said "we cannot conceive the exclusion of any side."

The congress carried on its works Friday morning by the election of a chairman of the congress and the setting up of organizational and political commissions, entrusted with examining the political platform and drafting the final declaration.

During the opening session, attended by delegates of Moroccan and foreign political parties and of the International Socialist, the USFP first secretary, Abderrahmane Youssoufi, read out the party's moral and political report.

The report surveys the party's actions and choices during the past decade with a special emphasis on its participation in the coalition government that was formed in 1998, bringing to power center-left parties after decades of right-wing rule.

Youssoufi, who is the prime minister of this coalition cabinet, expounded the alternation government achievements and called the USFP allies within the Koutla (Arabic name for bloc) to assess the alternation experience and elaborate the mechanisms and instruments needed to improve results in the perspective of the coming legislative elections.

Youssoufi who surveyed the USFP stand on outstanding domestic and international issues said when touching on the Sahara issue that the settlement of this question lies in "the democratic integration of all the Sahrawis who are attached to Morocco's territorial integrity" and that this territorial integrity cannot be the subject of any bargaining.

He deplored the fact that "partial strategies and narrow state interests" prevail over inter-Maghreban relations, at a time Maghreb countries should unite and join efforts to face up globalization.

The USFP first secretary also called for filling the gaps between the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean that are threatening the stability and security of the region and for promoting the movement of capital and technology transfer between the European Union and Maghreb countries.

At the domestic level, Youssoufi announced that the government is currently working on reforming the administrative warding, the communal charter and the electoral law. After he stressed the need to set up a permanent commission that will monitor public institutions, supervise their management and check the way public money is spent, Youssoufi called for the consolidation of the rule of the law, the consecration of justice independence, the rationalization of the administration, the transparent management of public money and the elaboration of rules enabling the citizens to check public affairs management.

Youssoufi likewise stressed the need to promote the situation of women and their economic and social integration, underlining that Islam does not prohibit women's contribution to the development process and that Morocco is in no need of polemics likely to delay its march towards progress.

The congress is attended by some 1,600 participants, but militants of the party and unionists from la Conf?d?ration D?mocratique du Travail (CDT), a trade union close to the USFP set up in 1978, have announced their withdrawal from the congress, few hours before the opening session.

In a statement sent to MAP, these militants and unionists said they reserve the right "to take all positions and initiatives" dictated by their political and historical responsibilities.

The 6th congress is convened more than ten years after the 5th congress in 1989, and three years after Morocco initiated the experience of political alternation.

It will discuss a number of documents and assess results of the party's activities, mainly at the head of the coalition government. It is also expected to discuss the legislative elections scheduled for 2002 and the representation of women in the party's structures. The congress is to adopt a decision grating to women 20% seats in all the party's decision-making bodies. The congress works, held behind closed doors, are to wind up on Saturday by the election of the party's new leading bodies.

The USFP was set up in 1975 after a scission within the UNFP (National Union of Popular Forces), itself set up after a split within the Istiqlal party in 1959.

The party is led by Youssoufi since 1992 after the demise of Abderrahim Bouabid.