Morocco’s local elections: With a little help from my friend

Notes internacionals CIDOB, núm. 3

1st June 2009. The first day of the two weeks of official campaign time Morocco accords to its political parties before elections. The country’s most powerful politician, King Mohammed VI is abroad. He follows the elections – as a sign of his ostensible neutrality – from Paris. The latest regime party, Authenticity and Modernity (PAM), nicely merged in the symbol of the “tractor”, holds it inaugural campaign meeting in a big hall in Casablanca. The party’s leader, Fouad Ali Al Himma, known in Morocco simply as l’ami du roi does not appear in the scene. Allegedly, he is in Paris to meet the King. The audience of the meeting is said to consist mainly of people shuttled in by three busses from the poor neighbourhoods, many hastily dressed up in campaign t-shirts. After the meeting, they have to walk back. (...)