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Ruling coalition wins as Moroccans play it safe

This could have been the election that ripped Morocco's secular ruling class asunder, bestowing unprecedented power on Islamists in a country where Muslim women in T-shirts sip wine alongside veiled sisters sipping tea.

Instead, voters stuck to the status quo in last week's election, favoring a conservative-leaning secular party close to King Mohamed VI, who exercises ultimate authority over Morocco's 33 million people.

Fear of the unknown appeared to trump the anti-corruption, anti-establishment message of the Islam-rooted Justice and Development Party.

Despite some new faces in parliament and government, analysts say no shifts are likely in the country's overall direction, its close ties to the US, or its commitment to privatization and boosting tourism.

Defying predictions, the Istiqlal party of the ruling coalition won 52 of the 325 seats in the lower house of parliament in Friday's vote, preliminary results announced on Saturday night showed.

The Justice and Development Party, or PJD, whose growing strength in recent years had worried its secular rivals, had 47 seats.

That was five more than the party won in the last elections, in 2002 -- but well short of the 80 it had hoped for. Even rival parties had expected the PJD to come out on top.

"We were modest," Istiqlal leader Abbas el Fassi said.

While the PJD predicted victory, he said, "we didn't say anything, because we are confident and patient to see what the Moroccan people have to say."

Yazmina Sibari, a 26-year-old mother who wore a headscarf as she strolled in Rabat, voted for the incumbent in her district, from the ruling coalition party RNI.

"I don't know all the candidates, so I voted for the candidate I knew," she said.

fed up

Mohamed Laroussi, who works for an advertising firm in Casablanca, said he didn't vote.

"People are fed up with politics," he said. "It's not a question of being afraid of extremism, because the PJD is not really extremist, but in the end they were afraid of major change."

The low turnout -- just 37 percent, the lowest in the country's young democratic history -- was an embarrassment to the government.

Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said it reflected the country's "political maturity." But international election observers expressed concern about disillusionment with the political system.

Ies Van der Laan of the international observer mission also noted "widespread allegations of corruption," including vote-buying.

While such incidents were limited and the observer mission called the vote overall transparent, Van der Laan said: "Even just the perception of corruption undermines faith in the democratic system."

tolerant

Morocco's cities are widely tolerant of Western customs. But the nation has seen a rise in religious conservatism that has boosted the PJD's support, especially among the poor but also among middle class families worried about youth joblessness.

"Political Islam is still a growing force, even if voters were not as enthusiastic about the PJD as they had wanted," said Mohamed Darif, a professor at Mohammedia University and an expert on Islamic groups and extremism.

The PJD presents itself as a bulwark against extremism. It has distanced itself from some members' calls to introduce Shariah and require the veil, especially after extremists staged the 2004 Madrid bombings and suicide attacks in Casablanca in 2003 and this year.
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