Back at 54 seats, PJD chooses opposition and a fight over Morocco’s electoral rules

The Justice and Development Party (PJD) says it will continue from the opposition after securing 54 seats in Morocco’s September 23 legislative elections, more than quadrupling its representation in the outgoing parliament. The party’s General Secretariat said Friday that its preliminary results showed a recovery of its support base in large and medium-sized cities, while also securing seats in rural constituencies. The PJD said all but one of its General Secretariat members who ran in the election won their seats from first place, with wide margins over their competitors. The party said the results confirmed its established position in Morocco’s political and electoral landscape, as well as the trust it enjoys among citizens, describing the result as a success against attempts to marginalize and exclude it. The PJD said its “natural position was to continue carrying out its constitutional, political, and activist roles from the opposition while defending national principles, the causes it represents, and the legitimate rights and expectations of citizens.” It also highlighted that its General Secretariat had decided to call an extraordinary meeting of its National Council to discuss the House of Representatives election results and take the appropriate decision. The PJD also welcomed the overall conduct of the election and the generally positive response from the relevant authorities to complaints it raised during the electoral process. Yet, the party criticized the turnout, which it said was the lowest since 2007. The PJD attributed the low participation to what it described as “the devaluation of political and partisan work, the weak and confused performance of the current government, and the movement of politicians between the parties of the governing majority ahead of the elections.” It also criticized scenarios promoted around who would head the government, saying these sought to bypass voters’ choices and violated the Constitution. The PJD additionally said the election results had exposed shortcomings in the current electoral system, which it had previously raised and would continue working to change. The party argued that abolishing the electoral threshold and using what it described as an “unusual and undemocratic” electoral quotient cost it additional seats in several local constituencies. It cited Skhirat-Temara, Meknes, Sale Medina, Sale El Jadida, Tangier, Fes Al Janoubia, and Fes Al Chamalia among the constituencies where it said it had been denied second seats. The party also attributed weaker results on regional lists to the shift from a national list to regional lists. The PJD additionally raised concerns over the number of polling stations, which exceeded 40,000, saying this made it difficult for political parties to cover all stations and created room for violations that could be difficult to document. It said some authorities and polling-station heads had refused to immediately hand over election records at polling stations, which it described as a clear violation of the law. The party said it would take the necessary legal steps to file complaints with the courts against polling-station heads who refused to provide representatives of candidate lists with copies of election records.

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