- MB in International press
- November 23, 2006
- 6 minutes read
Moroccan PJD Rejects Election Law, Fears Exclusion
Morocco’s Islamic Justice and Development Party (PJD) has rejected the new election bill, considering some of its articles as undemocratic and that they violate the principle of equality and the freedom to run for the elections.
Abdallah Baha, the president of the Justice and Development’s (PJD) parliamentary group, and PJD’s Undersecretary-General, said in a statement to Ikhwanweb:”the violations committed in the elections held on Sept. 8, 2006, did not make the government wake up and exceed the confused and undemocratic preparations for the next general legislative elections.
He pointed out that there are huge gaps in the bills lodged to parliament, like not renewing the electoral rolls, and insisting on using undemocratic rules to amend some of the rules of the House’s organizational law. Thus, the principle of equality and freedom of nomination were violated through establishing conditions of reproducing “Balkanization” and financial corruption in the elections, whether through depending on the local threshold of the elections or suggesting regulations for nomination, something that will definitely encourage vote-buying and voter corruption to get approvals and signatures.
What does, he wonders, collecting 100 signatures on the local level and 1000 signatures nationwide including 20% of the voters, mean, except allowing vote-buying; add to this the spirit and targets of exclusion permeating in these suggestions in order to deprive the minor parties of running except under unfair conditions; also, they practically exclude Moroccans in foreign countries, in a brazen unwillingness to apply the orders of the royal speech dated Nov. 6, 2005; thus, it seems that the government and its parties forge on- God forbid- towards copycatting the farce of the last Sep. 8 elections.
“Accordingly”, Baha said, ” the Justice and Development Party repeats its demands for an independent commission to supervise the elections so that the election battle be fair and to expand the scope of freedom of voting and the open political participation on the largest possible scale, while guaranteeing an independent monitoring for the election processes by civil society institutions. Also, we renew our rejection to the exceptional reviews to the election regulations, which have increased throughout a decade. We defend this because we want to create healthy conditions for the national campaigning to maintain and defend democracy against the lobbies of personal interests, and political and financial corruption.
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