Local and international monitors to oversee Moroccan elections

2007-09-05

For the first time, Morocco is allowing international observers full access to the country's Election Day proceedings. Observers hail from a number of countries and are organised under Morocco's Consultative Council for Human Rights and the US-based National Democratic Institute.

By Mawassi Lahcen for Magharebia in Casablanca – 05/09/2007

[Getty Images] Foreign observers will be allowed to oversee elections for the first time

International and civil society observers have been granted the right to monitor Moroccan elections for the first time, on September 7th. The Consultative Council for Human Rights has been officially entrusted with supervising and coordinating the monitoring effort.

This week Morocco is expecting an international group of 43 observers of various nationalities to arrive in the country, under the supervision of the United States' National Democratic Institute. During the second week of August, NDI representatives were invited by the Consultative Council for Human Rights to conduct an advance assessment of Morocco's elections preparedness. The Institute assessed efforts made by both the State and Moroccan political parties to improve electoral practices within the country, and expressed in its report that the 2007 elections represent an important opportunity to deepen the democratic process in Morocco.

Morocco has previously received requests from international organisations to monitor the country's elections, yet these requests have always been turned down. The permission international observers have received to monitor the upcoming elections is the most recent on the list of changes the country has undergone since King Mohammed VI assumed control.

In order to monitor the elections, the Network of Election Monitoring Organizations has enlisted approximately 3,000 observers to follow all stages of the electoral process. Kamal Lahbib, a member of the Secretariat of the Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, said: "Previously it was the rights organisations which took on the monitoring of elections in Morocco, and issued reports in this regard. However, that monitoring was not done in a professional manner... [W]e set out, within the framework of civil society, to establish the first independent observatory for Moroccan elections in 2002. We experienced a few teething problems with the 2002 elections, as it was a new experiment. Recently, however, we have restructured the Network of Election Monitoring Organizations and expanded it in preparation for the elections on September 7th."

This network now comprises 350 community associations across the country. According to Lahbib, " monitoring [will be] at all stages, beginning with the period prior to the elections, then during the election campaign, the voting procedures, the counting and announcing of the results, the challenges to them and the consequential judicial processes."

Lahbib said the Consultative Council for Human Rights has been given complete freedom for its monitors to visit polling stations and follow the proceedings at every stage, including the counting of the votes.

The Council has stated that it will issue a comprehensive report at the end of the elections.