Mohamed Darif, too many promises lead to Moroccans losing faith in political parties

Secretary-General of the New Democrats Party Mohamed Darif said that Moroccans lost confidence in political parties due to the “large number of promises and the absence of the electoral program.”

“Parties present proposals only and this is part of the political game,” Darif said on episode 9 of Hespress’ The Road to Elections.

The New Democrats Party was created in 2014 by political scientist and university professor Mohamed Darif, currently the party’s secretary-general.

The party was the first political formation created in Morocco since the new Constitution in 2011.

Darif said that his party was the first to receive a license to organize following 2011’s constitution, despite many other requests being refused.

Morocco’s new 2011 constitution was the first to mention political parties, the secretary-general said.

“In the history of Morocco, Parties were established through the Associations Establishment Law in 1958, then we made strides in separating the law on the establishment of parties from the Associations Law in 2002. The Associations Law was issued separate from the parties and a national debate was opened we disputed this issue within the Mohamed Bou Ebid Foundation,” Darif said.

“Chapter VII of the constitution talked about political parties and it was important progress for us since for the first time the constitution talks about Parties,” he added.

Darif considered that in Morocco, there are no small parties or large parties, but rather parties that have huge financial backing and support, and other parties that are not backed.

Finally, the secretary-general spoke about the impact of COVID-19 on the economies of the world, criticizing how the Moroccan government, headed by Saad Eddine El Othmani, dealt with the pandemic.

“The government was not present in the covid crisis. There are two institutions that dealt with the pandemic, namely the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Interior. The government was a spectator,” Darif concluded.