Morocco’s National Human Rights Council said Thursday it had identified dozens of cases involving the use of religion and religious symbols during the campaign for Wednesday’s parliamentary elections, as well as thousands of pieces of online content using religious rhetoric to influence voters.
In a preliminary report on its observation of the electoral process, the council said its observers identified 44 cases involving what it described as explicit use of religious symbols during the campaign. It also recorded six instances of campaign activity inside places of worship.
The council said its digital monitoring team reviewed more than 2,030 pieces of content involving the use of religion in election-related discourse.
Some content accused political parties of being “against Islam” or “fighting Islam,” while other material linked voting for particular parties to accountability before God, according to the report.
The council also said it identified content alleging that money was distributed inside a mosque, the use of a mosque loudspeaker to call for an election gathering and images of candidates at religious shrines.
Other online content encouraged voters to support a particular political party on the grounds that it was “the least harmful to religion,” the council said.
The National Human Rights Council is Morocco’s independent national human rights institution and is responsible for independent and impartial election observation under Moroccan law. It was among the institutions accredited to monitor the Sept. 23 election.
Calls to boycott
The council also recorded calls to boycott the election by the Justice and Charity movement and the Democratic Way Workers’ Party, both of which announced their boycott on the same day.
It said the Democratic Way Workers’ Party also conducted a campaign urging voters to boycott the election.
The council said it had also reviewed similar boycott calls attributed to an entity calling itself the “National Sahrawi Council,” the Gdeim Izik detainees’ group and an online platform affiliated with activists supportive of the Polisario Front.
According to the council, some of the latter content appeared in audio recordings featuring Sahrawi activists, including people living in Spain and others in Morocco’s southern provinces.
Children, violence and firearms
The council also reported cases in which children took part in election-related marches and processions, describing some of them as being in unsafe situations.
It said it had received allegations that social-support programs were being used to mobilize voters, as well as allegations of vote-buying. The council said those claims had not been verified in the field.
The council said there had been no widespread violence during the campaign based on the information available to it. It did, however, record several cases of tension, confrontations and clashes, including incidents in the Drâa-Tafilalet and Fès-Meknès regions.
Observers also reported gunfire in Akhfenir and the use of fireworks in El Marsa in the Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra region.
The council said it also recorded verbal violence and attempted assaults involving supporters of some candidates, particularly in working-class neighborhoods in the Casablanca region, including the Ben M’Sik, Anfa and Sidi Belyout districts, as well as in some popular markets in rural municipalities.
Political advertising on Meta
The council also examined political advertising on Meta platforms during the campaign.
It counted 538 advertisements from seven political parties between Aug. 31 and Sept. 10. The parties spent estimated maximum amounts ranging from about $18,000 to $370,000 on the advertisements, with another figure of $49,870 recorded among the spending estimates, according to the report.
The number of advertisements varied considerably among the parties monitored, from one advertisement for the least active party to 216 for the most active.
The council stressed that its findings form part of a preliminary observation report and include allegations and incidents that were not necessarily independently verified. Its role includes observing the electoral process independently and impartially and submitting its findings to the relevant authorities.
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