Morocco’s election
It is not yet clear how far the king will yield power to the people
Dec 3rd 2011 | RABAT | from the print edition
We keep on winning everywhere
INVIGORATED by the Arab spring’s bracing breeze, Moroccan newspapers greeted victory for the Justice and Development Party (PJD) in an election on November 25th with headlines such as “Earthquake!” and “Tsunami!” In fact, the Islamist party’s breakthrough into government, in this first election under a new constitution approved in a referendum in July, was neither a big surprise nor an electoral landslide. But it marked yet another striking advance for political Islam since the Arab protesters began to challenge autocracy a year ago.
The PJD, headed by Abdelilah Benkirane, a former physics teacher with an offbeat sense of humour, won 107 seats in the 395-member parliament. The independence-era Istiqlal Party, with 60 seats, came a distant second. The most radical change in the new constitution requires King Muhammad to pick a prime minister from whichever party wins the election.
Mr Benkirane was duly summoned by the king and asked to form a government. He will now seek to build a solid parliamentary majority with, as his preferred partners, the centrist Istiqlal and the left-wing Socialist Union of Popular Forces. “Our heart is towards the left, we have always said so,” he said. “But maybe the left doesn’t agree with our proposals.”
Despite the king’s promise to move towards parliamentary democracy, the old political establishment hedged its bets, hoping that the National Rally of Independents, with traditional backing from villagers, would, at the head of an eight-party coalition, challenge the PJD. But in the event the rally came a poor third, with 52 seats.
The Islamist PJD has been Moroccan voters’ main alternative to the status quo since it surged to prominence in a parliamentary election nine years ago, with a socially conservative message inveighing against corruption and promoting some of the same values that have inspired the Arab spring. The PJD has also, however, been careful to present itself as a loyal opposition, co-operating with the authorities in counter-terrorism and refusing to bid for unfettered power. In 2008 the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), approved by the palace, was created to put the Islamists firmly in their place by offering voters a rival opposition party. The PAM, which got 47 seats, is the only party Mr Benkirane has ruled out as a coalition partner.
The latest election was the first in which the Islamists ran candidates in all constituencies. Mr Benkirane emphasised that the election result must be fully respected. That was the price of his support for the king’s new constitution, which gives a bigger executive role to the prime minister but still leaves the king with decisive powers if he wants to exercise them.
King Muhammad is generally regarded as sincere in seeking more democracy and a more open, competitive economy. But it is less clear just how far or at what pace he is prepared to go. Some members of the February 20th Movement, a youth-led outfit that seeks to echo protesters elsewhere in the Arab world, are quietly proud that their street rallies have helped bring into government the only party bent on real reform. Supporters of February 20th say their demonstrations will continue. Their ultimate aim is something close to Tunisian and indeed European democracy.
Political Islam coexists with the king
That is not yet in the offing. Only 45% of registered voters turned out, and only 13m-odd of the 21m Moroccans of voting age bothered to register, 2m fewer than in 2007. The 8m who did not register include many poor and often illiterate villagers and shantytown dwellers. Though many of them still look to the king as a source of authority and unity, they too will need to be drawn into a more democratic system.
As Europe’s economy falters, the king hopes that his rapprochement with his rich peers in the six-country Gulf Co-operation Council may encourage investment in Morocco and give his people better access to the Gulf job market. The day before the election, sovereign-wealth funds in Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates said they would invest more than €2 billion ($2.7 billion) in Moroccan tourism. If that boosts jobs and economic growth in Morocco, the PJD, at the head of a new government, will not complain.
