Parliament’s new speaker seeks to burnish the image of the legislative body by tackling truancy.

By Siham Ali for Magharebia in Rabat

[AFP/Abdelhak Senna] Karim Ghellab, president of the Chamber of Representatives, is working to reform the way the Moroccan Parliament does business.

Karim Ghellab is under public pressure to do away with the long-standing issue ofabsenteeism in the Moroccan Parliament. The problem has damaged the performance of the legislative body, with observers wondering if the new chairman will take a stricter tack.

“I shall stop at nothing to achieve our objectives,” Ghellab vowed. “We simply need to find the best way of detecting who is absent.”

The Chamber of Representatives on January 12th approved new internal rules that target poor attendance.

Legislators will now have to explain their absence in a letter before committee meetings or plenary sessions. At the following meeting, the names of those absent will be read out and published on the chamber’s website. If MPs are absent without a valid reason on a working day, that day’s pay will be docked. The move will be published in the official bulletin.

Previous officials were unable to implement the sanctions set out in the internal rules and regulations despite their repeated promises to do so, said political analyst Magid Ibrahimi. Various efforts were launched but never achieved the expected results, he commented.

Former speaker Abdelouahed Radi had tried using a clocking-on procedure to identify absent MPs, but legislators refused to accept their magnetic cards, Ibrahimi explained. The signing-in process also failed because some MPs cheated by getting others to sign in on their behalf.

Radi said it was difficult to establish a list of absentees because some MPs would arrive at the start of meetings and disappear again, whilst others would only arrive towards the end of meetings.

Many believe that the time has come to enforce internal rules and put a definitive end to the problem.

Minister for Parliamentary Relations Habib Choubani, from the Justice and Development Party (PJD), expressed optimism. Political life has changed, and parliamentary work has become a more attractive prospect for MPs in the government and opposition alike.

“The presence of young MPs will boost the work of parliament, and will allow it to overcome the scourge of absenteeism,” he said.

Parliament has so far held three plenary sessions which were marked by a great turnout. But the real question is if this will continue in the same way throughout both plenary sessions and committee meetings.

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The next few weeks will be decisive, according to Ibrahimi. Political parties have a major responsibility to encourage their MPs to maintain a constant presence in the chamber, he said.

“The government in particular has much to gain from closing its ranks and getting its MPs to turn out, to avoid nasty surprises when votes are held on bills,” he added. “The current opposition looks much stronger and more structured, and could cause difficulties for the government if government MPs are not disciplined.”

In addition to absenteeism, the internal rules and regulations of the lower chamber have been amended to improve compatibility with the new technical provisions of the constitution. They envisage a new monthly session where questions can be put to the head of the government, and guarantees covering the rights of the opposition.

Another reform, which will take place over the coming weeks, aims to change the way in which oral question and answer sessions are organised to enable more interaction between parliament and the government.