Morocco's PJD calls for new elections

The Opposition Justice and Development Party in Morocco denounced, on Monday, the rush towards normalisation with Israel, accusing the current government of “failure”. It called for “new, free and fair elections”. It also stressed the country’s need for “real political reform”.

This came in a statement by the National Council of the former ruling Party (as the party’s parliament), which convened on Saturday.

The statement coincides with a visit by the Israeli Minister of Economy and Industry, Orna Barbivai, to Rabat that will last until Wednesday, to hold talks on strengthening economic and financial cooperation between the two sides.

The Justice and Development Party denounced what it described as “the rush that affected some people and cultural, educational, economic and religious bodies” towards normalisation with Israel.

He warned of the “risks” of this path to Moroccan society and its cultural, social and political fabric.

He stressed his “steadfast and firm position in support of the Palestinian issue, as a central issue that represents the depth of our belonging to the Arab and Islamic nation, and our affiliation with the global human sentiment that rejects the occupation and its racist practices.”

In December 2020, Morocco and Israel signed an agreement to resume relations between them.

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The Party continued in its statement: “Regardless of the reasons that prompted the State to move towards the resumption of relations with the Zionist occupation state, the National Council affirms that the Justice and Development Party was, and will remain, with the resistance and against normalisation with the Zionist occupation.”

The Party considered that the country needs “real political reform that will bring us out of the state of static, and definitively and actually consecrate the democratic choice. It may enable us to reach strong political and representative institutions that play their full roles in responding to internal and external challenges at all levels.”

The Party also considered that the current government suffers from “a crisis of legitimacy, a crisis of effectiveness and a crisis of communication, and the correct solution to the failure of the government (headed by the National Rally of Independents -liberal) to fulfil the heavy promises of the parties that formed it after a reasonable deadline, cannot be achieved except through new, free, fair and transparent elections and through ballot boxes, not by changing a prime minister to another.”

The Party called for spreading of a “new political and human rights spirit to find the appropriate formula in order to release those convicted due to the social protests and detained journalists, by resorting to the spirit of fairness and reconciliation.”

The Party appealed to the country’s King, Mohammed VI, “to activate the right of amnesty conferred on him by the Constitution,” according to the statement.

For the first time in the history of Morocco, the Justice and Development Party won the parliamentary elections in 2011 and 2016, and led the government until 2021, when it lost the election, in favour of the National Rally of Independents.

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