Parliamentary elections were held in

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

on 7 September 2007, the second of King Mohammed VI's reign. Voter turnout was estimated to be 37%, the lowest in Moroccan political history. There were 33 different

parties A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

and 13 independent candidates competing for 325 assembly seats. An amount of $61 million was allocated by the Moroccan government to organize the 2007 elections. The number of constituencies was increased from 91 to 95 before this election.Morocco's electoral constituencies increased to 95
People's Daily, 24 August 2007 Interior minister Chakib Benmoussa claimed the changes were made "in accordance with objectivity and transparency." However, BBC correspondent Richard Hamilton accused the government of

gerrymandering Gerrymandering, ( , originally ) defined in the contexts of Representative democracy, representative electoral systems, is the political manipulation of Boundary delimitation, electoral district boundaries to advantage a Political party, pa ...

in order to prevent the Justice and Development Party from winning. According to many analysts the complex voting system makes it almost impossible for any group to win an outright majority, although others have disagreed with this view, arguing that the electoral system is not particularly unusual and should favor large partie

Whatever the outcome, real power will remain with the king, who is executive head of state, military chief and religious leader. For the first time in the history of elections in Morocco, they are being monitored by foreign observers including the U.S.'s National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and 42 others. Turnout in the election was only 37% - the lowest in the history of Moroccan national elections. The Socialist Union of People's Forces (USFP), the largest party in the outgoing government lost nearly a quarter of its seats, and was replaced as the largest party by its coalition partner, the Istiqlal Party. The main gainers were the pro-government liberal People's Movement and Constitutional Union parties. The opposition Islamist Justice and Development Party had a modest increase in its tally as did the pro-government leftist

Party of Progress and Socialism The Party of Progress and Socialism (; ; , PPS) is a left-wing socialist political party in Morocco. History and profile The party was founded in 1974 by Ali Yata as the successor of Moroccan Communist Party and Party of Liberation and Socia ...

. Following the election the USFP was expected to leave the governing coalition.Moroccan elections bring victory for conservatives
''Magharebia'', 2007-09-10, accessed on 2007-09-12 Istiqlal Party leader Abbas El Fassi became PM on 19 September 2007.

Results

External links

Official 2007 elections website

Political leaflets from the 2007 elections

References

{{Moroccan elections

Elections in Morocco

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...