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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2016 13:50:33 GMT
Parliamentary elections in Morocco on Friday 7 October. Second election after the 2011 post-Arab Spring constitutional reforms. www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/09/morocco-elections-voting-parliament-160930135431653.htmlAll 395 seats in the House of Representatives are up for election, 305 elected in 92 multi member constituencies and 90 reserved seats elected in one national constituency (60 to women and 30 to "youngsters" under 40) with a 3% threshold. Morocco also has a mainly indirectly elected upper chamber called the House of Councillors. The Conservative and moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party under PM Abdelilah Benkirane have led a four party coalition with the nominally Liberal and former "friends of the King" National Rally of Independents (much less tightly connected to the royal family than it used to be), the rural interests Popular Movement and the by now fairly centrist Party of Progress and Socialism. No less than 18 parties are represented in parliament, but nine of them very small. The five main opposition parties are the SoCon and Nationalist Istiqlal Party, the court affiliated Authenticity and Modernity Party, Social Democratic Socialist Union of Popular Forces, neo-liberal and count affiliated Constitutional Union (by now the King's favorite among Morroccos many royalist parties), and the Social Democratic Labour Party. The government is basically a moderate coalition allied against the relatively small left wing, the two right wing parties directly controlled by the Court and the hard right Istiqlal Party. At least 21 smaller parties will be on the ballot, nine of them with 1-2 seats in the current parliament. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2016 22:15:02 GMT
Morocco had a turnout of 43%. PJD won, but their allies lost more, and PM Abdelilah Benkirane have a narrow 201 seat majority (198 needed). Not really enough in Morocco and especially the National Rally of Independents probably wants to distance themselves from the PJD. PAM won 55 seats and now unequivocally has the royalist vote. PJD + PAM won 73 seats combined and now have a majority between them. Seven micro parties lost representation and only the small leftist Federation of the Democratic Left entered, so down to twelve parties in parliament. The main left wing party, the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, lost almost half their seats.
Government:
Justice and Development Party (PJD) 125 (+18)
National Rally of Independents 37 (-15)
Popular Movement 27 (-5)
Party of Progress and Socialism 12 (-6)
Opposition:
Right:
Party of Authenticity and Modernity (PAM) 102 (+55)
Istiqlal Party 46 (-14)
Constitutional Union 19 (-4)
Democratic and Social Movement 3 (+1)
Left:
Socialist Union of Popular Forces 20 (-19)
Federation of the Democratic Left 2 (+2)
Green Left Party 1 (nc)
Union and Democracy Party 1 (nc)
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Foggy
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Post by Foggy on Oct 8, 2016 23:33:42 GMT
Morocco had a turnout of 43%. PJD won, but their allies lost more, and PM Abdelilah Benkirane have a narrow 201 seat majority (198 needed). Thank you once again for all this information and background on far-flung and obscure/under-reported elections abroad, but I'm afraid I feel compelled to point out that winning 201 seats out of 395 does not deliver a party a 201-seat majority. That just gives them a 7-seat majority. To enjoy a 201-seat majority, the coalition would have to have won 303 seats, which would not constitute a narrow victory. |
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Post by John Chanin on Oct 9, 2016 4:59:26 GMT
Morocco had a turnout of 43%. PJD won, but their allies lost more, and PM Abdelilah Benkirane have a narrow 201 seat majority (198 needed). Thank you once again for all this information and background on far-flung and obscure/under-reported elections abroad, but I'm afraid I feel compelled to point out that winning 201 seats out of 395 does not deliver a party a 201-seat majority. That just gives them a 7-seat majority. To enjoy a 201-seat majority, the coalition would have to have won 303 seats, which would not constitute a narrow victory. PEDANT ALERT!! Do you want the insight into foreign elections provided by non-native English speakers, or do you prefer to wallow in your own ignorance? |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2016 7:46:51 GMT
Morocco had a turnout of 43%. PJD won, but their allies lost more, and PM Abdelilah Benkirane have a narrow 201 seat majority (198 needed). Thank you once again for all this information and background on far-flung and obscure/under-reported elections abroad, but I'm afraid I feel compelled to point out that winning 201 seats out of 395 does not deliver a party a 201-seat majority. That just gives them a 7-seat majority. To enjoy a 201-seat majority, the coalition would have to have won 303 seats, which would not constitute a narrow victory.  |
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Foggy
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Post by Foggy on Oct 10, 2016 3:26:10 GMT
Thank you once again for all this information and background on far-flung and obscure/under-reported elections abroad, but I'm afraid I feel compelled to point out that winning 201 seats out of 395 does not deliver a party a 201-seat majority. That just gives them a 7-seat majority. To enjoy a 201-seat majority, the coalition would have to have won 303 seats, which would not constitute a narrow victory. PEDANT ALERT!! Do you want the insight into foreign elections provided by non-native English speakers, or do you prefer to wallow in your own ignorance? Eh?! Excuse me, but being pedantic (i.e. showing off one's own knowledge while expecting accuracy in others) is about as close as you can get to a definition of the opposition of wallowing in ignorance. It's not as if this is the first time that anyone has made a pedantic point on these boards, and it won't be the last. I don't want to be the one to scare off odo (or Georg for that matter – I speak German, so it doesn't take too much effort to decipher Ebner-Englisch, but I'd be a lot more lost if she suddenly started code-switching mid-sentence) for a second time, which is why I prefaced my post with gratefulness and appreciation for her continued efforts to cover these things. However, that doesn't mean I can sit back and pretend that "have a 201 seat majority" is or will ever be an acceptable shorthand for "have 201 seats and an overall majority" or "have 201 seats, which is enough to constitute and absolute majority." The former wouldn't take much longer to type. If you want to be unambiguous, then prepositions are the key: "PJD and allies won a majority with 201 seats" and "PJD and allies won a majority of 7 seats" would both be correct. A world in which such precision is not valued will soon become a very dangerous one indeed. If you consider it mainly an arithmetical mistake, then that would mean odo's level of mathematical skill is much lower than I'd have given her credit for (and much lower than would be needed on a psephological forum, quite frankly). If you consider it primarily a linguistic error, then it's still worth pointing out because it's a rare lack of clarity from someone to whom we had surely previously attributed excellent and outstanding ability to communicate in English. We have every right to be disappointed after such high standards have been set. Turning to the topic of the thread – despite the relative proximity of Tangiers to British territory, I hadn't seen much reason before the Arab Spring to take much notice of internal partisan and electoral events in Morocco or the machinations of personalities outside the royal court. It does appear that the King's concessions of 5 years ago are beginning to mean that there is a peaceful outlet for political differences to be expressed and recognised, and that is both an interesting development and to be welcomed. The most recent new edition of Michael Portillo's train-based travelogue saw him visit the country. An insight into the history of French involvement in that nation during the first half of the 20th century was woven throughout the programme, but there were only cursory mentions of Hassan II and his successor, with one nod to the fact that the current King still wields considerable power, or words to that effect. This was despite the show being fronted by a high-profile former politician. For that reason, elaboration on how Moroccan elections have actually started to matter in this thread should be greeted with enthusiasm. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2016 14:46:29 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2016 14:57:17 GMT
elaboration on how Moroccan elections have actually started to matter in this thread should be greeted with enthusiasm. While the king still retains significant powers (military, foreign policy, judiciary and religious matters) the 2011 amendments to the constitution strengthened the authority of the PM considerably by allowing him to appoint ministers and government officials and dissolve parliament (all previously the prerogative of the king). They also mandated that the PM is selected from the biggest party, whereas the king previously could (and often did) name whomever he pleased. |
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Foggy
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Post by Foggy on Oct 12, 2016 1:50:25 GMT
elaboration on how Moroccan elections have actually started to matter in this thread should be greeted with enthusiasm. While the king still retains significant powers (military, foreign policy, judiciary and religious matters) the 2011 amendments to the constitution strengthened the authority of the PM considerably by allowing him to appoint ministers and government officials and dissolve parliament (all previously the prerogative of the king). They also mandated that the PM is selected from the biggest party, whereas the king previously could (and often did) name whomever he pleased.That last part is the one main concession I remember reading 5 years ago, but I didn't know the rest of the details, so thanks for the information.  |
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Foggy
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Post by Foggy on Oct 25, 2016 4:40:05 GMT
Our good friend Hash has put together a thoroughly researched and very detailed write-up and analysis at his site with remarkable celerity. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2016 15:03:32 GMT
Hash made a thorough post about this election on his World Elections blog.
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