Moroccans vote in first elections since new Constitution

On the way to a polling station in a primary school at Al-Salam neighborhood in Sala city, near the Moroccan capital Rabat, the streets are filled with propaganda. Sanitation workers couldn't take off the campaign leaflets until Friday morning, when the election started. “We have started work since four in the mourning, but after more than 6 hours of continuous work, it couldn’t be finished," said Mohammed Al-Abeid, who works for Veolia Environmental Services Company, a French refuse collection company. The elections were carried out as usual in the polling station no. 41. According to the head of this station, Abdel Salam Al-Hoety, the first one casted his vote was a man in thirties. "Based on my experience in the voting of   constitution referendum, last July, women, especially housewives are busy in the mourning, so most of them prefer to come after Friday prayers. About the others, who work in the mourning prefer to come in the evening,” said Al-Hoety to 'Arabstoday'. In the city of Tangiers, north-west of Morocco, majority voters were of middle-aged men and women. Sources told ‘Arabstoday’ that a person belonging to  the February 20 movement, which is calling for an election boycott, stabbed himself with a knife, claiming that he was assaulted by the police. However, the plan didn’t work and the police took him to a hospital. Moroccan authorities have anticipated for any possibilities in Tangier. Moroccan youth consider Tangiers as a waiting hall, for those who want to sneak across the European’s borders onboard ‘death boats’, as they are locally known, or within the international transport trucks. However, the economic crisis in Europe closed the doors to their hopes, and most of them stayed in Tangiers. Analysts say that the February 20 movement uses these huge numbers of unemployed young people to put pressure on the Moroccan regime. Therefore, protests in Tangiers seem bigger than those in other major cities such as Rabat or Casablanca. Meanwhile, The Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) has criticised using private transportation to move voters to the polling stations, according to a recommendation of the National Council for Human Rights.   PJD stated the Council had no authority to issue any recommendations related to the elections. “Helping voters to get to their polling stations is a form of election propaganda, which has to stop in the election day, according to the law of Moroccan Parliament elections,” said the statement. “Also, this has a negative effect on equal opportunities and impacts the credibility of the results,” the statement added. Accordingly, the PJD called on Ministry of the Interior to prevent such practices. In a phone call with the National Council for Human Rights, a legal source said that the recommendation was to provide the appropriate conditions to enable people to cast their votes.