Elections in Morocco 1

Politics is not my cup of coffee. However, I was forced to read a lot of stuff on my daily newspaper read. It is quite common place for party-supported papers to make some publicity. So called independent papers have also alloted a couple of pages for the coming elections.

Two days ago, I received an SMS from the USFP to go and vote for them! In the evening I noticed that my Yahoo spam folder contained another incitation to go and vote for them!!!! As far as my law-knowledge goes that should be against law heh ??! but that was undoubtedly the last straw that pushed me to make a post(s) about Parties elections in Morocco. (at least Moroccan parties have achieved sth!)

First of all, I brushed up on what the Moroccan Government is and took at the COMPLETE list of political parties. Wikipedia has kindly categorized them into major, medium and minor parties but forgot to put their logos as it is the only way more that 50% of Moroccans would recognize their reprentatives. And because I’m too bad at remembring names, the CIA’s site helped me recall the names and positions of our ministers. Infact, many of them are on the run. To my surprise, I bumped upon Karim Ghallab with a nice Jellaba two blocks from where I live checking with his fellow party members.

Having known what it is all about, I needed to know what I should be doing on the big day. The guide to September 7th: Morocco’s election procedure was a nice read probably by a Moroccan.

The most intersting thing in this elections to the Hous of Representatives is that comment is free and many people are speaking thirs minds about what’s happening in an unprecedented way as far as I can see. The maghribia.com , for example, offers in its English version an open space for people to talk freely about the event and their expectations. Selwane.tv, another Moroccan site has made great use of video production facilities and created a nice digest of inteviews with Parties, citizens, civic society and even a Bonus including funny interviews.

To be continued….