Moroccan party says eligible population should vote in Sahara referendum

The Moroccan nationalist Istiqlal Party (PI), which is represented in the government, insisted that Moroccans will never accept that the eligible population is denied the right to take part in the upcoming self-rule referendum in Morocco's southern provinces.

The party which held last Sunday a meeting of its central committee said it is unacceptable that thousands of eligible voters from the Sahara are denied the right to participate in the UN referendum that will determine the status of the Sahara. The Istiqlal Party's statement stresses the "importance and the gravity of this turning point in the issue of our territorial integrity," adding that refusing a single member of the Sahrawi tribes' right to take part in the polling will undermine the whole operation.

The party also praised the Moroccan Sahrawis who left the Tindouf camps in Southeastern Algeria, bases of the Algeria-backed secessionist Polisario, and invited all other Sahrawis to join Morocco in response to the king's call "the homeland is clement and merciful."