Moderate Islamist party to form a coalition in Morocco

RABAT

A moderate Islamist party in Morocco, inspired from Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, won the most seats in early parliamentary elections, final results showed Nov. 27, giving it the right to lead a coalition government for the first time.

Morocco’s Justice and Development Party (PJD) captured 107 seats in the 395-seat assembly in Nov. 25’s polls, the Moroccan interior ministry said. It had 47 seats in the outgoing parliament, which made it the main opposition party.

Mohammed Tozy, a expert on Islamic movements, said the part of the new success of Islamist parties across the region is due to the Turkish model. “An Islamist party has been in power in Turkey for almost a decade now and has shown that modernity and Islam can be allied effectively,” said Tozy. Morocco’s pro-reform February 20 protest movement, responsible for protests held just before the king announced plans to change the constitution, had called on voters to boycott the election however voter turnout was 45.4 percent, up from 37 percent from the last parliamentary election in 2007, but lower than the 51.6 percent turnout recorded in 2002. “Our goal has always been the stability of the country even as we firmly demanded reforms. The results are better than we expected,” PJD leader Abdelilah Benkirane said in Rabat. Three parties from the secularist Koutla bloc, with which the PJD wants to form a coalition, won a total 117 seats, the results showed. Koutla includes the Istiqlal Party, of outgoing Prime Minister Abbas Al Fassi, Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP) and Socialism and Progress Party (PPS). The three parties won 60, 39 and 18 seats respectively. Istiqlal headed the incumbent coalition. PJD’s rivals, a grouping of eight liberal parties with close ties to the royal palace, lagged behind with about 160 seats in total, according to the final results. The moderate Islamists’ strong showing came on the back of its promises for greater democracy, less corruption and to tackle acute social inequalities by raising minimum wages and reforming education.