Moroccans are being called to the polls on Wednesday, September 8, for legislative and local elections which will determine the fate of the Islamist PJD party in power for a decade, even if the latter does not hold strategic ministries.

Long confined to the opposition, the Justice and Development Party (PJD, moderate Islamist) is hoping for a third term at the head of government.

He had achieved historic electoral success after protests by the "February 20 Movement" - the Moroccan version of the Arab Spring of 2011 - which called for an end to "corruption and despotism".

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Morocco is the only country in the region where Islamists have remained in power after popular uprisings in the Arab world, but decisions and directions in key sectors continue to emanate from initiatives of King Mohammed VI.

For the first time, nearly 18 million Moroccans are called to vote on the same day to elect the 395 deputies of the House of Representatives and more than 31,000 elected municipal and regional officials.

This reform aims to increase the turnout, which had capped at 43% during the 2016 legislative elections.

New calculation method for the distribution of seats

It is also the first time since the holding of the first elections in Morocco in 1960 that the distribution of seats in the House of Representatives will be calculated on the basis of the number of registered voters and not of voters.

This new method of calculation should handicap the big parties, in favor of the small formations, but only the PJD opposed it, considering itself "aggrieved".

If it achieved the same score as in 2016, the PJD would only get, according to estimates, 80 to 85 seats, compared to 125 at the time.

This would complicate its task of forming a new government coalition in the event of victory.

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Marked by the absence of major meetings due to the pandemic, the electoral campaign was dominated by the clash of three parties: the PJD, the National Rally of Independents (RNI) and the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), these last two Liberals, amid accusations of buying candidates and votes.

The PJD denounced the "massive" use of money, without naming any party.

But the number one of the PAM, Abdellatif Ouahbi, has accused him by name of the RNI, led by the wealthy businessman Aziz Akhannouch, described as close to the Royal Palace, "of flooding the political scene with money".

Charges "categorically rejected" by the party in question, which had played a key role in the formation of the government in 2016 by imposing its conditions, after a political crisis of several months having weakened the PJD.

Lack of polarization

But the former head of government and former secretary general of the PJD Abdelilah Benkirane, still influential, returned to the charge on Sunday, firing red balls at Aziz Akhannouch in a video posted on Facebook.

"The presidency of the government needs a politician with integrity around whom there is no suspicion," he said, reproaching the head of the RNI for having "neither culture, nor ideology, nor historical past, nor political party either ".

The other favorite in the poll is the PAM, the main opposition party founded by the current royal adviser Fouad Ali El Himma in 2008, before he resigned in 2011. Relations between this party and the Islamists, for a long time conflicts, have recently subsided.

In the absence of opinion polls, local media estimates also point to the chances of the Istiqlal Party (opposition).

However, electoral competition is characterized by the absence of a clear polarization on political choices.

Whatever the results of the next election, all political parties are supposed to adopt a charter, stemming from the "new development model", which foreshadows a "new generation of reforms and projects", as Mohammed recently indicated. VI.

This model, designed by a commission appointed by the king, outlines several avenues for reducing the country's deep social disparities and doubling the GDP per capita.

A new Constitution, adopted in 2011, admittedly conferred broad prerogatives on Parliament and the government, but in fact, major decisions in strategic areas such as agriculture, energy or even industry emanate from the monarch, independently of the changes in the executive.

With AFP

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