RABAT – Moroccans voted in a parliamentary election yesterday that could yield their most representative government ever, after King Mohammed ceded some powers to prevent any tumultuous spillover of Arab Spring uprisings.
The election will be a litmus test of the ability of Arab monarchies to craft reforms that would placate popular yearning for greater democracy without violence-ridden revolts of the sort seen in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Syria this year.
Some 13.6 million Moroccans registered to vote in the North African country’s ninth election since independence from France in 1956. The voter turnout stood at 22.4 per cent by 3pm, seven hours after the vote began, the interior ministry said.
Shoe-shiner Mohamed said he may vote before polling stations closed at 7pm. “Last night a friend explained to me what elections are all about with all the troubles in Arab countries: I have to vote so that we can end the misery we live in,” he said, as he crouched waiting for customers on a busy Rabat boulevard. “That’s all we have for now: patience and vote”.
In contrast to previous elections when the result was evident in advance, the latest vote is a closely run contest between a moderate Islamist opposition party and a new coalition of liberals with close ties to the royal palace.
“We don’t know what to expect. We hope voter turnout will exceed 50 per cent and that today we will mark a victory of democracy,” said Abdelilah Benkirane, who leads the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), as he voted in Rabat’s middle-class Les Orangers neighbourhood.
His rival Salaheddine Mezouar, leading the liberal Alliance for Democracy coalition, also could not make any predictions.
“The feedback is positive so far . . . People are going to the polling stations . . . I’m confident Moroccans are well aware of the particular meaning of the current context,” he told Reuters after he voted in the upper-class Souissi neighbourhood. – (Reuters)