Abdelwahad Radi re-elected speaker of the House of Representatives

Abdelwahad Radi was re-elected on Friday speaker of the House of representatives by 136 votes out of the 256 voters at a second ballot.

Radi of the socialist group at the House was followed by Abdelhamid Aouad of the Istiqlali group for Unity and Egalitarianism (86 votes) and Lahcen Daoudi of the Party for Justice and Development (31 votes). Three cast votes were null.

At a first round of votes, Radi got 118 votes followed by Abdelhamid Aouad with 69 votes, Hassan Maouni, representative of the Haraki pole (56) and Lahcen Daoudi (35).

Radi, who was first elected speaker of the House of representatives in 1997 and also in 2002, was born in 1935 in Salé, twin town of Rabat, and became member of the political bureau of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP) in 1989.

He was first elected Member of Parliament in 1963 and was appointed cooperation minister in 1985. Radi taught as social psychology professor at the college of letters and humanities of Rabat.

Former Secretary General of the Arab-African Union (1984-2004), Radi was co-chair of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Forum (1994-1986) and chairman of the Consultative Council of the Arab Maghreb Union (2001-2003) as well as chairman of the Parliaments Union of member States of the organisation of Islamic Conference.