Las elecciones marroquíes estarán monitoreadas por un Comité Central
Morocco's King Mohamed VI has ordered the establishment of a Central Monitoring Committee aimed at checking the integrity of Morocco's elections. The Commission is composed of the Minister of the Interior and the Attorney General and will be in charge of checking that the reliability of the elections is maintained and respected, starting from the registration on the electoral lists to the result of the voting.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Interior, the Central Committee and the regional committees "will carry out their tasks in full compliance with the laws and regulations in force and without prejudice to the powers and authorities granted by law to the legislative, administrative and judicial bodies". In this line, the Ministry has pointed out that the aim is to create "the next electoral process and immunise it from anything that could affect the will of the voters and their free choice".
The secretary general of the opposition Authenticity and Modernity Party explained that "the importance of the upcoming elections is primarily a political translation leading to the renewal of constitutional institutions and strengthening their functions". Thus, the Central Committee will hold meetings with party leaders to inform them about the electoral processes and their follow-up.
Rachid Lazraq, professor of political science and constitutional law, told Al-Arab that this new measure "aims to strengthen the rule of law and institutions and to present a new image of Morocco, which is moving towards strengthening the democratic choice". In this sense, the reform would contribute to "generating international and social recognition and confidence in the Kingdom as an incubator for attracting investment".
Lazraq told Al-Arab that the "credibility of the elections and the resulting institutions are linked to making progress in the fight against political corruption in its broadest sense". Moreover, according to the professor, the upcoming elections will seek to "topple populist leaders, as conditions for establishing change and giving them credibility which is the basis for achieving the economic development we need".
However, this is not the only measure that has been taken to this end. Months ago Morocco carried out a reform of the Organic Law of the House of Representatives, adopting a change that would modify the method of calculating the electoral denominator based on those registered in the polling stations instead of the number of voters.
In order to achieve and guarantee the validity of the electoral process in the upcoming elections, the local commissions will carry out measures to immediately detect any results that contain suspicious indications of a violation of the integrity of the elections.
In addition, in order to preserve participation, the Commission will welcome proposals for measures to be taken to optimise the democratic process in Morocco.
Morocco will hold its next legislative and municipal elections on 8 September, in accordance with the decrees approved by the Government Council in Rabat. Similarly, the government has announced that the election of members of the Parliament's Chamber of Councillors will take place on 5 October and the election of members of the Ministries of Agriculture, Trade, Industry, Handicrafts, Services and Fisheries will be held on 6 August.
This is the first time that Morocco will go to the polls on a working day, instead of Friday, the traditional polling day. This modification was the result of a proposal put forward by several political parties who argued that social participation in the polls would be higher if held on a full working day.