BBC NEWS
Polls have closed in Morocco’s first parliamentary elections since a new constitution was approved by a referendum in July.
The vote in the north African kingdom was brought forward in response to the Arab Spring uprisings.
The new constitution, proposed by King Mohamed VI, gives more powers to the parliament and prime minister.
The king must now appoint the PM from the party which wins the most seats, rather than naming whomever he pleases.
The result is expected to be a close contest between a moderate Islamist opposition party and a new coalition of liberals with close ties to the royal palace.
Under the new constitution, the king still has the final say on issues of defence, security and religion.
About 13.5 million Moroccans are eligible to vote for the 395-seat parliament.
‘Test poll’
The BBC’s Nora Fakim, in the capital, Rabat, says the polls are seen as a test of the king’s response to the Arab Spring, and his gamble of ceding some of his powers to elected officials
But voting was slow: by 17:00, turnout was 34%, our correspondent says.
The pro-reform February 20 movement, responsible for the protests staged just before the king announced his plans to reform the constitution, called for a boycott of the vote.
Some Moroccans said they would not vote as they had little faith that it would change anything.
“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.
Hassan Rafiq, a vegetable vendor in Rabat, told AP news agency he also did not plan cast his ballot: “The parties have presented the same people for the past 30 years. The least they could do is change their candidates.”
The 2007 elections, the first with widespread international observation, had a turnout of just 37% and some fear it could be even lower this time around.
The moderate Islamists of the Justice and Development Party (PJD), say they believe they can take the largest share of seats. They hope to replicate the success of moderate Islamists in Tunisia who won an election last month.
But the country’s communications minister said that the outcome of the election was “open”.
“The strongest party will not capture more than 16-18% 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.
