Two parties boycott Morocco's elections

28/08/2007

Two political parties in Morocco have opted to refrain from participating in the coming legislative elections. Annahj Addimocrati and the Amazigh Democratic Party have decided the government has not yet achieved a satisfactory minimum level of fairness and transparency to warrant their participation.

By Sarah Touahri for Magharebia in Rabat – 28/08/2007

[Sarah Touahri] Secretary-General of Annahj Addimocrati, Abdellah El Harrif (left), during a party meeting.

Thirty-three political parties have fielded candidates for Morocco's September 7th legislative elections. Two additional parties, Annahj Addimocrati (The Democratic Path) and the Moroccan Amazigh Democratic Party, plan to boycott the poll.

Founded in 1995, Annahj Addimocrati has never taken part in an election. Its main ally, the Parti de l'Avant-garde Democratique et Socialiste (Avant-garde Democratic and Socialist Party, or PADS) has ended its own boycott of the elections and will run for the first time since its creation in 1984.

Mustapha Bahma, a member of Annahj Addimocrati's political office, said boycotting the elections is a right which his party intends to exercise while trying not to harm the interests of its allies in the national democratic grouping: PADS, the National Congress Party and the Unified Socialist Party.

Party Secretary-General Abdellah El Harrif says the party has not seen sufficient changes in the political situation to motivate it to participate in the upcoming elections, and that the current circumstances prevent it from participating. "We have seen no real change in public life. Parliament's activity is limited and it has no real power to legislate by implementing bills, guidelines or strategies. Ministers are just civil servants who carry out the will of the palace," he commented.

Annahj Addimocrati believes the outcome of the elections will neither make political life more democratic nor improve living conditions for the public, and they will not slow what it sees as the social and economic deterioration of Moroccan society. In the party's view there are more important things than standing in elections, such as grassroots-level campaigning to promote civil liberties and human rights, supporting the campaign against rising prices and working with people on a daily basis, as El Harrif said, "it is through grassroots activity that we can put pressure on parliament to make it take measures that will benefit the mass of citizens." He also called for "constitutional reform and changes to election laws to reduce the number of people who have been profiting from the situation for a long time and amassing wealth."

The Amazigh Democratic Party issued a statement in May regarding its decision to boycott the elections. The party's reasons included "the lack of recognition of Amazigh identity and the Amazigh language in the constitution, as well as the state's continuing strategic marginalisation of Amazigh concerns."

The party also blamed the absence of fundamental conditions guaranteeing fair competition between political parties and transparent elections. It called on all Amazigh organisations to support its stance with regard to the election boycott. Omar Afden, a member of the party’s political office, said the primary obstacle preventing it from taking part in the elections is the government's lack of a clear strategy for transparency. Like Annahj Addimocrati, it also believes parliament has insufficient powers to fulfil its intended aims.