Government indifferent to PJD’s boycott of partial communal elections

The Moroccan government is maintaining its plans to follow through with partial communal elections, despite the Justice and Development Party’s recent decision to boycott the electoral bid.

Speaking to reporters after the government council meeting this Wednesday, government spokesman Mustafa Baitas said that “the elections must be organized, as the decision is binding.”

The election is set to fill vacant seats, following the constitutional court’s ruling to strip elected officials from their seats for “incompatibility of accumulated offices.”

The court had received over 60 appeals back in October, requesting rulings related to the election of members of the House of Representatives.

The partial communal election of December 2 will be held to elect new officials to the now vacant positions and is open to all parties.

Abdelilah Benkirane, Secretary-General of the PJD, announced his party will boycott these upcoming elections, this Wednesday, November 17.

The resurrected PJD leader had said “we can not participate in something that does not seem fair to us. It is our right.”

He said that the elections had “no legal basis,” as the vacancy provided for in existing election regulation “does not include the situation of a vacancy resulting from the method of distribution of seats which occurred on September 8.”

Benkiran had previously said that his party will participate in elections once his party’s “revision of the electoral law is met.”

PJD has been one of the main opposers of the recent electoral quotient reform, which they say “severely hurts” their party.

Abdelilah Benkirane had confirmed earlier this week that he will call for “calm and restraint” in his party’s opposition practice.

He had said his strategy “is for PJD to distinguish itself as a point of order that calls for the service of the country’s interests, and those of its people,” adding it will be “a reasonable and calm opposition.”

Electoral law reforms are not among the incumbent government’s plans, and the recent electoral quotient has been largely popular with most Moroccan parties and electorates alike.