Moroccan majority parties opt for list system

The Moroccan majority parties unanimously agreed to adopt the list polling system for the coming election of the members of the House of Representatives (lower house of the parliament).

The leaders of the parties participating in the coalition government held a meeting on Monday to debate their final stand regarding the amendments to be introduced on the electoral law and their stand on the voting system to be adopted for the election of the House of representatives, a release by these parties said, adding that the parties agreed to adopt the list system and to surround it with a number of guarantees to consolidate its efficiency.

The majority parties stressed the need to hold an extraordinary session of the parliament to adopt a number of texts, such as the bill on public freedoms that is already tabled before the parliament, the electoral law and the law regulating political parties that will be shortly submitted to the parliament.

The participants in the Monday meeting decided to hold another meeting to be attended by all the parliamentary groups of the majority parties and these parties leaders to draft a program. The majority parties will mobilize around this program during the period ahead of the coming elections-- slated for September 2002.

Seven center-left parties are forming the coalition government, led by first secretary of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP) Abderrahmane Youssoufi, since March 1998.

These seven political parties are the USFP (10 portfolios), the Istiqlal Party (PI/4 portfolios), the National rally of Independents (RNI/4 portfolios), the National Popular Movement (MNP/3 portfolios), the Party for Progress and Socialism (PPS/2 portfolios), the Social Democratic Party (PSD/1 portfolio) and the Democratic Forces Front (FFD/1 portfolio).

Eight of the cabinet members have no political obedience.