Moroccans voted on Friday in parliamentary polls expected to show gains for moderate Islamists pushing an anti-corruption message to voters seeking more vigorous efforts to fight poverty.
From the slums of Casablanca on the Atlantic coast to the sweltering Saharan villages in the south, some of the 15 million registered voters began choosing from 33 parties and dozens of independent candidates seeking seats in the 325-member assembly. "Morocco, like any Muslim state, has to choose Islam," engineer Ali Sunari, 23, said as he voted in the capital Rabat. "All other parties have achieved nothing for us."
In Casablanca's Escuela shantytown, housewife Minina Bneslik said: "I voted for a candidate who helped us in the past. I hope this election will help the poor out of their misery". Analysts say the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) has a chance of winning cabinet seats if it emerges as the single biggest party. PJD leaders say they aim to win up to 80 seats, a big rise from their current strength of 42.
The party emphasises conservative family values and ethics in public life, a message popular in lower-income urban suburbs. PJD leader Saad Eddine Othmani predicted the group would emerge as the single biggest force in parliament. Speaking to reporters as he cast his ballot in Sale town, a PJD bastion, he told reporters: "We will win. The PJD will be the first party." Asked what he would do if his prediction turned out to be correct he said: "We will decide later."
But a complex voting system will make it almost impossible for any group to win a majority. Some liberals fear the PJD wants Islamic rule, but the party calls al Qaeda an "enemy", and some in the establishment see the PJD's moderation as a religious bulwark against jihadists.
Morocco and neighbouring Algeria have been hit by suicide bombings this year, stirring US fears that Islamist armed groups are planning co-ordinated attacks throughout the oil- and gas-exporting Maghreb region on Europe's southern flank. A suicide bombing in Algeria killed 19 people on Thursday night, an attack the authorities blamed in Islamist rebels.
Whatever the outcome, the polls will not change much in the core structure of the kingdom, which remains a conservative, deferential society. The king wields the keys of power as army commander in chief as well as commander of the faithful.
Foreign investors have turned to Morocco because of its social stability, determination to modernise and integrate its economy into world markets and general openness to foreigners.
Leading foreign investors include France's Renault, Vivendi , Accor, Spain's Telefonica, and Santander, Portugal Telecom and Dubai-based Emaar Properties. Architect Jamal Sellawi, 31, said he voted for the leftist Union of Socialist Popular Forces (USFP), a member of the secular ruling coalition, to try to block an Islamist advance.
"I don't trust Islamists ... Islamists' experience with politics have all been a failure and brought bloodshed and chaos in most Muslim countries." Mustapha Mehnina, a 27-year-old unemployed man in Escuela slum, said: "I cast my ballot paper out of national duty but I have no hope this election will bring change." The polls are the second parliamentary vote under the reform-minded monarch, who ascended the throne in 1999 on a wave of popularity after the iron-fisted rule of his father.
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