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Moroccans stick to status quo
09/09/2007 19:11 - (SA)
Rabat - This could have been the election that ripped Morocco's secular ruling class asunder, bestowing unprecedented power on Islamists in a country where Muslim women in T-shirts sip wine alongside veiled sisters sipping tea.
Instead, voters stuck to the status quo in Friday's election, favouring a conservative-leaning secular party close to King Mohamed VI, who exercises ultimate authority over Morocco's 33 million people.
Fear of the unknown appeared to trump the anti-corruption, anti-establishment message of the Islam-rooted Justice and Development Party.
Despite some new faces in parliament and government, analysts say no shifts are likely in the country's overall direction, its close ties to the United States, or its commitment to privatisation and boosting tourism.
Defying predictions, the Istiqlal party of the ruling coalition won 52 of the 325 seats in the lower house of parliament, according to preliminary results announced on Saturday night. Final results were to be confirmed on Sunday night.
The Justice and Development Party, or PJD, whose growing strength in recent years had worried its secular rivals, had 47 seats.
That was five more than the party won in the last elections, in 2002 - but well short of the 80 it had hoped for. Even rival parties had expected the PJD to come out on top.
"We were modest," Istiqlal leader Abbas el Fassi said. While the PJD predicted victory, he said, "we didn't say anything, because we are confident and patient to see what the Moroccan people have to say."
Low turnout
Yazmina Sibari, a 26-year-old mother who wore a headscarf as she strolled in Rabat, voted for the incumbent in her district, from the ruling coalition party RNI.
"I don't know all the candidates, so I voted for the candidate I knew," she said.
Low turnout - just 37%, the lowest in the country's young democratic history - was an embarrassment to the government.
Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said it reflected the country's "political maturity". But international election observers expressed concern about disillusionment with the political system.
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