The first female mayor of Morocco's key tourist destination Marrakech lost her seat after a court ruling that has outraged her party and prompted calls on Wednesday for a stike to protest the decision.
"Her election reflects the image of modern Morocco" - secretary general of PAM, Cheikh Mohamed BiyadillahOn Monday a Moroccan administrative court ordered the cancellation of the vote that elected Fatima Zahra Mansouri, a 33-year-old lawyer, as the first female mayor of Marrakech, after ruling the vote in the city’s Menara district was fixed.
The court found that some ballots were distributed before the legal date and some vote records were destroyed.
The probe into the vote began after an opposing candidate from the Front of Democratic Forces’ party filed a complaint about irregularities in the election.
Following the court’s decision Mansouri lost her seat on the municipal council and would be unable to assume the position of mayor of Marrakech.
Call for 48 hour strike.
Mansouri's Party for Authenticity and Modernity (PAM), which swept the local elections last month, said in a statement that the 48-hour strike had been called to "protest the plot against the democratic process."
Mansouri's selection as mayor in a municipal council vote on June 22 was only the second time a woman has taken a mayoral position in the North African kingdom. Mansouri studied law in France, and is a daughter of a former assistant to the local authority chief in Marrakesh, which has a population of more than one million.
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