Rabat | Moroccans began voting on Wednesday morning for general elections that should determine the future of the Islamist JDP party in power for a decade.
Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. local (7 a.m. GMT) and will close at 7 p.m. (6 p.m. GMT). The first estimates are expected in the evening.
“Everyone at the polls!” calls in the daily “The Economist”, for which the turnout is the “real issue of today’s polls”. Participation had capped at 43% during the 2016 legislative elections.
The approximately 18 million voters will elect – for the first time – the 395 deputies of the Chamber of Representatives and more than 31,000 municipal and regional elected representatives.
The head of government is from the party that won the legislative ballot. He is appointed by King Mohammed VI and responsible for forming his executive for a five-year term.
In this kingdom of 36 million inhabitants, the decisions and the main orientations of the strategic sectors remain the prerogative of the monarch.
Long confined to the opposition, the Justice and Development Party (JDP, moderate Islamist), led by outgoing Prime Minister Saad-Eddine El Othmani, hopes to run for a third consecutive term as head of government.
The JDP had achieved historic electoral success after the protests of the “February 20 Movement” – the Moroccan version of the Arab Spring of 2011 – which called for an end to “corruption and despotism”.
For two weeks, the electoral campaign, marked by the absence of major political meetings due to the pandemic, was for a long time sluggish before giving rise in recent days to a sharp confrontation between the JDP and its liberal rival of the National Rally of Independents. (RNI), two of the favorites of the poll.
“Suspicions”
The former head of government and former secretary-general of the JDP Abdelilah Benkirane, still influential, came out of his reserve to attack Aziz Akhannouch, head of the RNI and wealthy businessman, in a video posted on Facebook. “The presidency of the government needs a politician of integrity around whom there is no suspicion,” said Mr. Benkirane.
Minister of Agriculture since 2007, Mr. Akhannouch retorted Monday, in a local media, that the criticisms of the Islamists were “an admission of failure” and “only aim to sow discord”.
The latter, at the head of one of the largest fortunes in the country and described as close to the Royal Palace, played a key role in the formation of the previous government, controlling portfolios such as the economy and finance or industry.
In the absence of opinion polls, local media predictions also point to the chances of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM, liberal) and the Istiqlal Party (center-right), both in opposition.
The campaign, which ended at midnight on Tuesday, was marred by accusations of vote-buying.
If the JDP denounced the “massive” use of money, without naming any party, the number one of the PAM, Abdellatif Ouahbi, has accused the RNI by name. Accusations “categorically rejected” by the incriminated party.
On the other hand, the long conflicting relations between the PAM, the first opposition party, and the Islamists, have recently calmed down.
No polarization
This is the first time since the first elections in Morocco were held in 1960 that the distribution of seats in the House of Representatives will be calculated on the basis of the number of registered voters and not of voters.
This new method of calculation should handicap the large parties, to the benefit of small groups. Only the JDP opposed it, considering itself “aggrieved”.
Because if it achieves the same score as in 2016, the JDP will obtain this time, according to estimates, only 80 to 85 seats, against 125 at the time. This would complicate its task of forming a new government coalition in the event of victory.
Electoral competition is characterized by the absence of well-defined polarization in political choices.
“We want elected officials with a clear vision and not people who manage things from day to day,” Abdeljalil Skaïti, 43, met in the streets of Rabat on the eve of the elections told AFP.
Whatever the results of the next election, all political parties are expected to adopt in the future a charter resulting from the “new development model”, which prefigures a “new generation of reforms and projects”, as promised. recently Mohammed VI.
