Morocco Does Not Need Early Legislative Elections

Morocco’s appointed Head of Government, Abdelilah Benkirane, has once again asserted that the new government will be composed only of the parties of the former majority and that he will not allow the country to conduct an early election.

During the National Council of the Justice and Development Party (PJD), held Saturday in Bouznika, Benkirane said that negotiations with party leaders to form a government coalition have not evolved in the  right direction.

Benkirane said he will negotiate only with both Aziz Akhannouch, Secretary General of the National Rally of Independents Party (RNI) and Mohand Laenser, Secretary-General of the Popular Movement (MP).

He stressed that the government coalition will consist solely of the former majority parties, including the PJD, the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS), the RNI and the MP.

Benkirane noted that King Mohammed VI could have appointed another person as the head of government, but that the King democratically appointed the leader of the party that won the legislative elections, which were held on October 7, 2016.

Benkirane went on to lambaste a political party without mentioning its name, saying, “The political opinion wonders. Is it acceptable that a party served by the legislative elections’ result blocks the formation of the government – [it] threatens that the government cannot be formed only with its participation and boasts that it has skills that the government cannot do anything without them, especially in terms of Morocco’s strategy to the African orientation?”

After his appointment as Head of Government on October 10, Benkirane’s negotiations with party leaders to form the new government have come to a standstill. Benkirane has sought for the RNI and MP to relinquish their decision to also include the Social Union of Popular Forces Party (USFP) and the Constitutional Union (UC) in the coalition.

Source :Morocco World News