RABAT: Morocco’s Interior Ministry says an Islamist party has won the most seats in parliamentary elections and is set to lead the next government. The dominant showing by an Islamist Party in Morocco’s parliamentary elections, according to partial results, appears to be one more sign that religious-based parties are benefiting the most from the new freedoms brought by the Arab Spring.
The Justice and Development Party dominated Morocco’s elections. By taking 107 seats in the 395-seat legislature, the party ensured that King Mohammad VI would be forced to pick the next prime minister from its ranks and to form the next government out of the dozen parties which are currently in Morocco’s parliament.
The right-of-center Istiqlal, a potential ally for the PJD– as it is known by its French initials – placed second with 60 seats.
It is the first time the PJD will be part of the government and its outsider status could be just what Morocco, recently wracked by pro-democracy protests, needs.
Although it didn’t bring down the government, the North African kingdom of 32 million, just across the water from Spain, was still touched by the waves of unrest that swept the Arab world following the revolution in Tunisia, with tens of thousands marching in the streets calling for greater freedoms and less corruption.
The king responded by modifying the constitution to give the next parliament and prime minister more powers, and held early elections.
But there was still a vigorous movement to boycott the elections. There was only a 45 percent turnout in Friday’s polls, and many of those who went to vote turned in blank ballots or crossed out every party listed to show their dissatisfaction with the system.
Election observers from the U.S.-based National Democratic Institute estimated that up to a fifth of the ballots they saw counted had been defaced in such a way.
Like the Ennahda Party in Tunisia, the PJD is also from the more moderate end of the Islamist spectrum. The party’s leader, Abdelilah Benkirane, supports a strong role for the monarchy and the movement has always been careful to play the political game.
The party doesn’t describe itself as “Islamist” but rather as having an Islamic “reference,” meaning that its policies follow the moral dictates of the religion.
The PJD has also avoided focusing on issues like the sale of alcohol or women’s headscarves that have obsessed Islamist parties elsewhere in the region, and instead has talked about the need to revamp Morocco’s abysmal education system, root out rampant corruption and find jobs for the millions of unemployed.
In Morocco, the PJD is widely acknowledged as being the best organized in the country, relying on grass roots networks to promote candidates rather than just enlisting prominent local figures to attract votes.
It also benefited from the push for change in the country and the discrediting of the parties closely associated with the status quo. In particular, the Party of Authenticity and Modernity formed by a friend of the king, which was the largest in the outgoing parliament, lost many of its seats in the new elections.
The PJD has had an ambivalent relationship with the activists of the pro-democracy movement. Several high-ranking party officials joined the street demonstrations and expressed their solidarity, while Benkirane himself warned against the protests – possibly to stay in the palace’s good graces.
