 |
| A woman in Rabat, Morocco, cast her ballot Friday in parliamentary elections. Rafael Marchante |
Islamists slip in Moroccan elections
A Friday vote was seen as a regional test for political Islam in the Arab world.
By Jill Carroll | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the September 10, 2007 edition
Page 1 of 2
CAIRO - The Islamists had expected to make unprecedented gains in Morocco's parliamentary vote Friday.
Even though political parties based on religion are illegal, the officially nonreligious but Islamic-inspired Justice and Development Party (PJD) was predicted to become the largest bloc in the 325-member chamber, as it had gained support by campaigning to tackle corruption in the north African country's government.
Instead, the PJD garnered only about five seats, for a total of 47, and came in second, behind the right-leaning and secular Istiqlal (Independence) party, which won 52 seats in the lower house of parliament, according to preliminary results released Saturday.
The surprisingly low showing for the PJD was a blow to the party's long-held strategy of taking a carefully measured path to power in a region with a history of harsh crackdowns on Islamist political groups on the verge of electoral success.
"Islamist parties and governments are watching very closely the Moroccan elections. Moderate Islamist parties in Algeria, Egypt, Syria, and some Gulf countries will have to be part of any reformist agenda in the region," wrote Abdeslam Maghraoui, visiting associate professor in political science at Duke University in Durham, N.C., in an e-mailed response to questions.
The PJD has gained support in recent years by tapping disillusionment with a government seen as removed from voters' needs, focusing on the poor and jobless youths. Nearly 5 million of Morocco's 33 million people live on less than $2 a day, according to the World Bank.
Across the Arab world, Islamist groups of various stripes have become the most potent opposition forces to the authoritarian governments of the region.
"The appeal of Islamists is [that] they are a fresh voice. We say we want someone from 'outside the Beltway' – the Moroccans are the same way," says Donna Lee Bowen, a professor of political science and Middle Eastern studies at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
Some parties have chosen to work from within their systems and others from without, either by choice or by law. Allowing political space for moderate Islamist groups is seen by many as essential to staving off support for violent groups such as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (the Arabic term for the area that generally includes Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia).
A brutal civil war was sparked in Algeria in 1992 when the government abruptly canceled elections that an Islamist party was poised to win.
RSS feed
