King Mohammed calls for massive and discerning participation in coming polls

Morocco's King Mohammed VI has called for massive and discerning participation in the coming elections, scheduled to be held on September 27, to make of the polls a landmark in the process of consolidating the march towards democracy and development and a major asset in taking on the challenges posed.

"The mobilization of each and everyone imposes itself as a necessity if we are not to miss this crucial democracy rendez-vous," said King Mohammed VI in a speech he delivered Tuesday evening on the occasion of the 49th anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the People.

The revolution was triggered when the French occupiers decided to exile the late King Mohammed V and the Royal Family, provoking an overwhelming uprising of the Moroccan people. The revolution tolled the bell for the occupation. Resistance continued until it was crowned with the triumphant return of the late King Mohammed V and the Royal family and with Morocco's Independence in November 1956.

In his speech, King Mohammed VI underlined "Otherwise, we shall have truncated institutions, and even have institutions that are highly detrimental to democracy and that feed despair and disaffection and extremism." "Our highest aim is to consecrate the credibility of institutions, and consequently promote our democracy, making it an efficient implement to take up the challenges of development," he said.

Insisting on the significance of elections as a basis for democracy, King Mohammed VI said "the free and aware choice by citizens of whom would stand for them in running public affairs being the golden rule for democracy, elections are indeed a genuine test of citizenship, both, as the expression of the sense of responsibility as well as active and efficient involvement in political life which, in turn, is the basis for democracy."

After he pointed out that appointed officials can be dismissed if they under-perform while elected persons need to last through their term however long it may be, the sovereign urged Moroccans to "vote for the best elements so that representative institutions become a strong support to the executive bodies."

"I, therefore, call citizens to make of the elections a strong moment and show to what extent the Moroccan people is pervaded by the values of democracy and of freedom and by the virtues of moderation, tolerance and respect of the law," the sovereign said, before commending the key role played by the civil society in consolidating and rooting the values of active and efficient citizenship and before inviting media bodies to utmost mobilization for this lofty objective.

The coming electoral operations provide parties with a golden opportunity to rehabilitate political action in its noble terms and the vote will help mobilize citizens for massive and discerning participation, favor the emergence of suitable candidates and fair competition. "This will give rise to competent elite and workable programs, with clear-cut objectives and means of action," King Mohammed VI said, urging professional chambers to play their economic role in terms of generating wealth and spurring investments.

If such a role is played adequately, he said, "the chambers will develop into genuine banks for regional investment projects, instead of being a mere electoral lever. The same goes for labor unions which are called to embrace a new social culture, wherein the preservation of jobs and the reinforcement of enterprise productivity and competitiveness are at the very core of the new citizenship concept."

Touching on the role of the public powers, entrusted with seeing to the honesty of elections, the sovereign said, "We expect from public powers, entrusted with seeing to the honesty of elections, more than mere neutrality Ðbe it active or passive- but rather a firm commitment to secure a scrupulous implementation of the law and to protect the regularity of the polls which we surrounded, in our moralizing bid, with all necessary legal, judiciary and administrative guarantees."

King Mohammed VI insisted that the new Moroccan political landscape "should be built on clearly established poles, federating political currents close in terms of the cohesion of their orientations, a landscape leaving no room for those who use democracy as a means to confiscate democracy, because there is no democracy for non-democrats."