Moroccan Election Results - Good News for Tourism

The Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), won 21 percent followed by the Istiqlal Party with 5106 seats (16.22%) the PJD with 15.94 percent. While this was a good result for PAM, the Islamists were the big improvers and won in major cities such as Fez, Casablanca, Tangiers, Rabat and Agadir

Perhaps the biggest celebrations were in Fez, where there was jubilation at the defeat of the highly unpopular Mayor,Hamid Chabat from Istiqlal and the prospect of a new leader for the city. Music, singing and drumming went on for much of the night.

Local business and tourism figures told The View From Fez that a new council Fez could expect a more sophisticated approach to improving the city.

Hamid Chabat fought hard to retain Fez but succumbed to the campaign of Driss El Azami, head of the PJD list and current Minister of the Budget.

"Preliminary results confirm strong PJD advanced in terms of number of votes. This is a historic day for the city of Fez," said Driss El Azami live.

In a first reaction to this defeat, the secretary general of the Istiqlal Hamid Chabat called for "an investigation", denouncing "irregularities" and a "democratic catastrophe."

Official Rating of political parties at national level:

The final election results, announced Saturday by Interior Minister Mohamed Assad, put PAM head with 6655 seats (21.12%), followed by the Istiqlal Party with 5106 seats (16.22%) and the PJD with 5021 seats (15.94%). Preliminary results had placed the PJD, second before the final count finally took it back to its third position.

1- Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM): 6655 seats,
2- Istiqlal Party: 5106,
3- Justice and Development Party (PJD) 5021 seats,
4- The National Rally of Independents: 4408,
5- Popular Movement party: in 3007,
6- The Socialist Union of Popular Forces: 2656
7- Party of Progress and Socialism: 1766
8- The Constitutional Union: 11489 seats

The vote on Friday in elections seen as a test for the ruling Islamists Justice and Development Party, or PJD, in the first ballot for local and regional assemblies since the king introduced reforms to ease protests in 2011.

According to the Interior Ministry, 52.3% of registered Moroccans went to the polls, a figure almost identical to that of 2009..

With limited reforms, heavier public spending and tough state security measures, four years ago Morocco managed to calm protests that echoed those that brought down autocratic leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya in 2011.

Of the eight major parties, the PJD party is the only one that managed to improve its results - getting almost 3 times more seats than in the 2009 election, when they managed only 1513.

PAM's "victory" is a little hollow as they lost thousands of votes.

The PJD had major gains in taking the cities of  Fez, Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakech, Tangier, Tetouan, Agadir and Kenitra. Their lead in most of the cities is so commanding that they are in a position to chair the councils.

Tourism Minister Lahcen Haddad - "results good news for Tourism"

According to the popular Tourism Minister, Lahcen Haddad, the results are good news for tourism because of "possible changes in the leadership of city councils of tourist cities like Marrakech, Agadir, Fez and Tangiers."

The Minister went on to explain that  “Elsewhere, it is the mayors who are the spearheads of tourism development and tourism promotion. But not Kabbaj [mayor of Agadir] who blocked it; for Fatima-Zahra Mansouri [mayor of Marrakech] the sector was the least of her worries; Chabat [mayor of Fez] has politicised local action to promote tourism as part of his skirmishes with Lebbar [Aziz Lebbar is a tourism industry businessman and President of the Regional Association of tourism industry of Fez]… change at the head of these cities is welcome,” the minister summed up.

As in all things Moroccan - time will tell.

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