Monarch appoints Benkirane to form Moroccan government

The Moroccan elections passed off peacefully  The head of Morocco’s Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), Abdelilah Benkirane, was was appointed on Tuesday by King Mohammed VI to forming a new government following his party’s victory in last Friday’s elections.
The Ministry of Royal Household, Protocol and Chancellery announced in a statement that King Mohammed appointed Benkirane, under the new constitution, after receiving him in Midelt (central Morocco).
Following a meeting with the king, Benkirane said: “I was honored by his majesty’s reception, and he appointed me to head and form the new government”, expressing his pleasure with the reception and the Kings words and asking the Almighty to grant him success “in this great mission his Majesty assigned me to for the greater good, and to abide by the noble oath I swore today”.
Analysts read a strong, clear, and unencrypted message from the King’s choice of the poor city of Midelt to make the announcement, reflecting his wish to develop disaffected areas in his kingdom. Observers stated that the King sent the message to upcoming government that indicates giving priority to poor areas in Morocco, especially mountainous areas where Midelt and the very poor city of ‘Onfko’ are located. The population of the two cities were subjected to severe isolation  and exposed to a strange disease that infected its children, causing dozens of deaths.
The monarch personally visited the disaffected areas, where he spent a whole night in a tent with them, and gave the signal to launch infrastructure projects for these areas. He also removed the governor of Khenifra Province.
Benkirane's party won 107 out of 396 parliamentary seats. The party said it is ready to form a coalition government with all political parties in Morocco, with exception to what they call “Pro-Monarch Party”, referring to the ‘Authenticity and Modernity Party’ (PAM) which chose its place in opposition.
The new constitution dictates that the king would choose the country's leader from the party with majority votes. It is expected that the party leadership abides by their parliamentary share in the allocation of portfolios and ministers for a democratic course of action.
‘Arabstoday’ was informed that the number of ministers will not exceed 15, and the alliance which most party leaders refer to is with the Democratic Bloc, a national and historic alliance between the Independence Party and the Socialist Union and Progress and Socialism, whose resistance against the French colonialism is considered a trump card when negotiating with any head of government in Morocco.
Meanwhile, civil society bodies monitoring the elections noted that the most important feature of the campaigns in Morocco was the trend in violence. The campaign launched peacefully at the start, reaching mutual violence by in some regions, and the elections that took place November 25 witnessed several other violations, however not affecting the integrity of the votes.
The organisations stated, in a press conferences held on Sunday in Rabat, that the violations were: not respecting the specified places for the advertisements belonging to the national list, absence of the Tamazight language in the campaign flyers, hanging advertisements and posters illegally, not allowing political parties calling for the boycott of elections into public halls, in addition to using discourse and slogans of a racist and discriminatory nature, using mosques in campaigning, besides the involvement of authoritative figures and supporters in the campaign and using monetary bribes to influence voters.
The monitoring bodies registered the occurrence of arrests, physical violence, and interrogations of February 20 activists, as well as altercations and clashes between male and female candidates. They also stated by observing the voting process some disappointments, like the low turnout of women inside voting offices, and the deprivation of some of the voters from their constitutional right to vote due to not receiving notices to register in the lists.
Coordinator of Civil Societies for Monitoring the Elections, Al-Habib Kamal, said that their observations did not include all local poll centers and only monitored and recorded violations in around 8000 polling centers out of 38,000 total, adding that the remarks did not focus on the Election Day and did not question the integrity of the November 25 votes.
Kamal stressed that the objective of making these remarks was to grab attention to abnormal issues that occur during the elections, in order to avoid them in the future, indicating the necessity of registering any violations.
Karim El-Sharqawy, on behalf of the Moroccan Association for the Physically Disabled said that the electoral law was not clear concerning preserving the rights of participation of the physically disabled, pointing out that the law did not identify the differences between disabilities. He added: “Sign language for the deaf and mute is not recognised enough in Morocco to grant communication, in order to explain the electoral rights to the disabled, including their right to participate.”
It is noted that the Coordinator of Civil Societies for Monitoring the Elections only approved 1982 observers to monitor the elections, of which 25 per cent were women, while 458 observers were not approved due to not being registered in the elections lists as indicated by law, whereas 25 observers were laid off owing to their being elected as candidates.