Morocco's two largest political parties cemented their standing in local elections, while a closely watched Islamic party made modest gains in the first vote since May suicide bombings by Muslim extremists.
The Socialist Union of Popular Forces and the conservative Istiqlal were the biggest winners in final results announced on Saturday. Both parties are members of the coalition government, and together, they won nearly a third of the vote.
Moroccans voted Friday on 23,689 seats for local councilors across the North African kingdom. The ballot was seen as a test of the strength of a moderate Islamic party, Justice and Development, that has gained ground quickly since its founding in 1997.
The group placed 11th out of a dizzying 27 parties in the running, according to Interior Minister Mustapha Sahel, who announced the figures. However, the showing was not seen as a true measure of its popularity.
Concerned about a growing fundamentalist presence, Morocco's government had put pressure on the party to lower its profile in the election. The party agreed and presented only 4,268 candidates -- less than 4 percent of the 122,658 candidates running.
The interior minister announced turnout of just over 54 percent, higher than expected. The rate was closely watched as a sign of whether Moroccans took seriously their government's pledge of a free and fair election.
With 3,980 seats, the conservative Istiqlal won nearly 17 percent of the vote, and should control Casablanca, Morocco's largest city and economic hub. The Socialist union took 3.373 seats, or nearly 15 percent, and is likely to hold the capital, Rabat.
The Islamic Justice and Development party, which was not present in the last local elections in 1997, made modest though significant gains. It will hold 593 council seats, or about 2.5 percent.
Justice and Development, which draws its support in impoverished urban suburbs and among university students, has rallied against the French-speaking elite, denounced rampant corruption and called for a strengthening of Arab-Muslim identity.
The party surprised Morocco last September, tripling its seats in legislative elections and taking 43 seats in the 325-seat assembly.
Moroccan authorities and the pro-government press have accused the party of "moral responsibility" in May 16 attacks in Casablanca that killed 33 bystanders and 12 suicide bombers.
The attacks shook this Muslim kingdom that had been spared violence despite an 11-year-old bloody Islamic insurgency in neighboring Algeria. Authorities say an international network was behind the bombings that mainly targeted Jewish and Spanish sites.
The government's investigation into the attacks showed that Moroccans from shantytowns carried out the five nearly simultaneous suicide bombings and have yet to show solid evidence of an international link.
Starting with last year's legislative election, Morocco began promising its citizens a free and fair vote. Those elections were an important step in a process of liberalization launched by King Mohammed VI after the 1999 death of his father, Hassan II.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS