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Moroccan Democracy Process: The Will Needs Citizens’ Trust

Ahmed Jazouli, Ph.D. - 2/18/2008

On January 23th, the Moroccan Lower House closed its first session. Officially, the elections that led to its election knew the lowest after rates of participation in Morocco’s history (37 percent).

Though, the bicameral parliament has been on the first pages of the Moroccan press during the whole period.

The Budget discussions “were never seen!” The Upper House sent the State’s Budget to the Lower House for a second reading. Before the counselors(so named), their colleagues at the Lower House included twenty substantive amendments to the finance bill and two thirds of the budget committee members quit the vote session as an expression of the loose support the executive could get!

This reflects the highly sensitive atmosphere after September 7 elections that was followed by the nomination of a government of minority! Only 97 MPs voted fore and 67 MPs were against the public budget 2008.

Before this, on October 30th, the Moroccan 325 seats House of Representatives voted for the Cabinet program giving the new ministers five years term to stay in office. The 155 majority was due to the support of parties that are not part of the government, which let observers predict that the new cabinet’s term of office would be shorter.

The other scenario would have been the parliament enforcing the freshly nominated executive to resign. The constitution stipulates that the cabinet’s failure to gain majority within the lower house leads to its resignation automatically. Therefore, the Moroccan democratic process failed to use a constitutional prerogative in place since 1996.

Only 93 MPs voted against and 77 had no position, though most of them belong to the opposition parties. Those who had not supported the cabinet were 170; seven more than the simple majority (163 seats).

The vote for the cabinet program takes place by raising hands and only the vote of MPs present in the plenary session at that moment counts. Undecided MPs can leave the plenary with no effect. There’s nothing in the Moroccan legislation which stipulates that the majority of members is required to validate the vote.

The opposition parties are so divided that they couldn’t build an alliance. Moderate Islamist PJD (46 seats), the Union for Popular Movements(41 seats) and the extreme and moderate left parties (15 seats) can’t meet around any common background because of their ideological antagonism and political diversions. The cabinet is under the mercy of the newly founded independent group “Authenticity and modernity” (36 seats) which supported the executive though not being part of it.

Widely read independent newspapers criticize the executive bitterly. They are focusing on the Prime Minister’s lack of strategic planning for the next five years, heteroclite team of ministers and fabrication of political affiliation to some of them.

Though elections are getting more free and fair than past decades, the process couldn’t give birth to a clear majority with a common political vision. The electoral law favors the balkanization of results. At any time, the proportional vote counting system had permitted any party to get one fourth of the seats. This enforces the Prime Minister to build larger coalitions. Ex-Prime Minister Driss Jetou formed his cabinet of eight political parties. His predecessor Abderrahman Youssoufi led two cabinets made of seven parties!

The actual Prime Minister risked his cabinet’s fate, by reducing the number of parties taking part in his governmental coalition. Though, they are still four.

There are 39 officially registered political parties in Morocco. Thirty three of them presented candidates in September 7th parliamentary elections, but only 11 could get representation in the Lower House and seven could found political groups inside the “people’s house”.

The boom of parties is part of the birth of the democratic process since 1994, when political prisoners were released and Morocco launched its reconciliation process with its several components including promotion of human rights through schools. At the same time, the great number of parties (39 parties for 14 millions of adults) is caused by the weakness or the absence of internal democracy in organizations. Therefore, most of the parties are the result of secession within the leadership.

More than the electoral law that is one of the reasons for the weakness of political parties, the long years of oppression - from 1965 when state of emergency was declared till the 1990s – served to permanently limit parties’ growth. When the first awkward clues of democratic transition started to be visible through its different components, political parties didn’t seize the opportunity to make change in their strategic visions. The national allies during past years of oppression are still the same though the political angles had changes. Though the social issues dominate political debates, the left represented by USFP doesn’t mind to rally to the national right Istiqlal Party; as both parties were fighting together against marginalization during past decades.

New issues are coming out in Moroccan political scene. Only 37% voted in the House of Representatives elections. More than the system gets transparent, less it attracts citizens’ attention. Parties programs and awareness campaigns could interest neither the marginalized youth nor the elite. The citizens are still not included in the democratic process. The first and last time parties come to them is during electoral campaigns.

The debate about democracy in Morocco is still focusing on constitutional reforms. It’s true that any democratic change should start by changing the constitution. But why the Moroccan political decision makers don’t use the prerogatives that already exist in the constitution? So, democracy is a day to day engineering. Education tailors the greatest part of the whole process. It’s hard to convince about democracy in a country that suffers from 36% of illiteracy and most of them are adults; which means at least 56% of voters!

The parliament and MPs can make an effort to show the importance of having a legislative institution in the country. They had to prove their added value to make ordinary citizens should feel that concretely. A parliamentary ombudsman and permanent contacts with citizens will help. MPs that started creating constituency offices may be the model for the others. Also, the inclusion of citizens in the process of framing public policies would be an added value to the whole process. If convinced, citizens may participate massively in the forthcoming elections. 2009 local elections will test the whole process. A challenge to all in the country of Jamaâ Lafna!

A challenge to the nearest Arab country to Europe!