Morocco Democracy: On The Threshold of a New Government

Morocco Democracy: On The Threshold of a New Government

 By Morocco News Agency Staff

Rabat, Morocco --- December 13, 2011 ... Over the weekend, the governing bodies of the three parties interested in joining the coalition in Morocco with Benkirane’s Justice and Development Party formally decided to join the government.

On Sunday, the National Council of the Independence Party and the National Council of the Popular Movement both unanimously approved the decision to participate in the upcoming government.

Moreover, the Central Committee of the Progress and Socialism Party also approved by a large majority the decision to join the Benkirane government. These decisions mean that the forthcoming government will have from the start a comfortable majority of 217 seats (55 percent of the votes) - a profound improvement over the narrow 199-seat (50 percent) government Benkirane had been anticipating late last week.

 With these decisions, the meaningful coalition negotiations in Morocco can proceed on such issues as specific policies, the structure of government, and the selection of ministers.

Meanwhile, the public’s confidence in, and expectations from, the Benkirane government are exceeding significantly the support he and his coalition partners received during the elections.

According to a major poll conducted a week ago by the Moroccan weekly Actuel, 82 percent of Moroccans are confident in Benkirane’s ability to run a government and put Morocco on the right way.

According to the poll, 43 percent were “fully confident” and a further 39 percent were “reasonably confident” in the new government.

There is widespread support for Benkirane’s selections of “five priorities: justice, education, unemployment, health and housing,” for Morocco’s next government.

Morocco News Agency