The United States on Monday took a wait-and-see attitude towards a moderate Islamist party that prepared to govern in Morocco after winning the most seats in the parliamentary election.
The Justice and Development Party (PJD) dominated Friday’s polls, the first since the approval of a new constitution in a July referendum that transferred some of King Mohammed VI’s near absolute powers to parliament and the prime minister.
“I think we’ll wait and see how this party actually operates and the things it says publicly, as well as its governance,” State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner told reporters.
However, Toner said “it’s more important not what a government or what a particular party is called, but what it does and whether it operates according to democratic standards.”
Under the new constitution the king, the latest scion of a monarchy that has ruled the north African country for 350 years, must now choose a prime minister from the winning party instead of naming whoever he pleases, as in the past.
