Moroccan elections begin, fears of low turnout

The country's February 20 movement has called for an election boycott Morocco's parliamentery elections have begun amid fears of a low voter turnout.Some 13.6 million Moroccans registered to vote in Friday's election, the North African country's ninth since it gained independence from France in 1956.
The interior ministry said the voter turnout stood at 4 per cent by 1000 GMT, two hours after polling stations opened.
"I will vote, maybe later before the polling station closes," said shoe shiner Mohamed as he crouched waiting for customers on a busy Rabat boulevard.
"Last night a friend explained to me what elections are all about with all the troubles in Arab countries: I have to vote so that we can end the misery we live in. That's all we have for now: patience and vote," he said.
"We don't know what to expect. We hope voter turnout will exceed 50 percent and that today we will mark a victory of democracy," said Abdelilah Benkirane, who leads the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), as he voted in Rabat's middle-class Les Orangers neighbourhood.
His rival Salaheddine Mezouar, who leads the liberal Alliance for Democracy coalition, also would not be drawn into making predictions.
"The feedback is positive so far ... People are going to the polling stations ... I'm confident Moroccans are well aware of the particular meaning of the current context," Mezouar told the Reuters news agency as he voted in the upper-class Souissi neighbourhood.
The pro-reform February 20 movement in the country has called for a boycott of the election, arguing the constitutional reforms do not go far enough and the elections will only give credibility to an undemocratic government.
The 2007 elections, the first with widespread international observation, had a turnout of just 37 per cent and some fear it could be even lower this time around.
The poll in the north African kingdom was brought forward in response to the Arab Spring uprisings. It is the first since the introduction of a new constitution, proposed by King Mohammed VI, was approved by a referendum in July.
Opinion polls are not allowed in the North African kingdom but observers said the Islamist opposition Justice and Development Party is likely to win the largest number of seats.
"The strongest party will not capture more than 16-18 per cent of the vote. The formation of a [government] majority will be tough and it is hard to make predictions," Communications Minister Khalid Naciri told AFP.
The Justice and Development Party's main rival is the Coalition for Democracy, a loose eight-party pro-monarchy bloc that includes Finance Minister Salaheddine Mezouar's National Rally of Independents party.
The bloc is led by the finance minister in the outgoing government but many analysts say its principal power-broker is a friend of the king who used to hold a senior interior ministry post before founding a political party.
In all, 31 parties are vying for the 395 seats in the lower house of parliament -- 70 more than during the last election in 2007.
A proportion of them have been reserved for women and others for younger deputies in a bid
Whichever bloc emerges with the most seats in parliament, they are unlikely to be able to form a government on their own. That will force them to seek an alliance, and possibly even a “grand coalition” between the Islamists and the liberal bloc.
That worries economists, who want to see a cohesive government able to narrow the budget deficit, reduce the 30-percent-plus youth unemployment rate and address the needs of the 8.5 million Moroccans below the poverty line.
“What we want to see is a strong government,” said Liz Martins, a senior Middle East economist at HSBC.
“Our concern is that Morocco ends up with a divided parliament and a not so-homogenous government that will not be able to get anything done. That would be a danger.”
Both parliament and the prime minister will have greater powers under the new constitution.
The prime minister must now be appointed by the king from the party which wins the most seats in the assembly.
However, the ruler - in this case King Mohammed VI - would still have the final say on issues of defence, security and religion.  It is already clear Abbas al-Fassi, who holds the job now, will be replaced because his Istiqlal party is widely unpopular.
Polling stations opened at 0800 (0800 GMT) and are due to close at 1900.
The polls are regarded by many as a test of the king's response to the Arab Spring, and his gamble of ceding some of his powers to elected officials.
Turnout is expected to be low however, with little political campaigning and even less excitement on the streets.
Some voters in the nation of 35 million people said they did not plan to cast their ballots because they had no faith that legislators would work to improve their lives.
"I am not going to vote and I say it with my head held high," Aicha, a housewife in the mountain village of Tiddas, told AFP news agency.
But the country's communications minister has said that outcome of the election was "open".
More than 1,000 young people who have degrees but are unemployed staged a demonstration in Rabat on Thursday, demanding jobs and joining the calls to boycott the vote.
With authorities concerned about voter turnout, Omar Bendourou, a constitutional law professor at Rabat's Mohamed V University, said they would "do all they can" to ensure turnout is higher than the 37 per cent recorded in the last elections in 2007.
He said "a strong turnout in the 2011 elections would give credibility to the constitutional reform adopted in July".
"And it would give them some credibility, a favourable image abroad of how the kingdom responded to protests."
While the constitutional reform devolved some of the king's powers to parliament and the prime minister, he remains the head of state and themilitary and still appoints ambassadors and diplomats.
But the move towards greater democracy could falter if polling day is marred by the kinds of vote-buying that has happened in the past, and if afterwards there are signs that palace officials are trying to meddle in the new government.
Morocco’s leaders - and their Western allies - say the country is a model for the Middle East that offers a positive alternative to the convulsions of the Arab Spring.
Since succeeding his father to the throne in 1999, King Mohammed has won international praise for improving human rights.
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When demonstrations, inspired by the Arab Spring, broke out earlier this year, he responded deftly by backing constitutional reforms that took much of the momentum out of the protest movement.
But there remains a vocal minority who say the king’s reforms do not go far enough.
Away from Morocco’s political classes, many people struggle to see how this election represents anything new, especially as the main players have all been on the scene for years and are a part of the establishment.
“This election will be no different from the others, nothing has changed,” said Redouan, a 21-year-old man in a working class district of the capital, Rabat. “Same faces, same names. Same political parties.”
The monarch has said he wants elections that are “free, fair and competitive”. But there are already signs the murky electoral practices of the past are still in play.
“Money is what moves voter turnout in Morocco,” said Ali Anozla, editor of independent news portal Lakome.com.
“The bulk of the candidates running in these elections are prominent land owners and businessmen and we are already hearing once again of massive use of money in these polls,” he added.