Rabat, Morocco (TMT)- The Moroccan Minister of Interior submitted yesterday a draft law saying that the electoral threshold, the minimum share of the vote which a political party requires to secure a representation in the parliament, will be lowered from 6% to 3%.
This decision comes only six months before next October’s parliamentary elections.
Moroccan paper Akhbar Al Yaoum said that while various small parties will benefit from the new threshold to secure a parliamentary seat, Morocco’s Justice and Development party (PJD) [heading the current governmental coalition] will be “the most affected from this decision.”
Nabila Mounib, the secretary-general of the Unified Socialist Party, a small party though well-known among Moroccans, welcomed the decision, stressing that her party has “always called upon the lowering of the electoral threshold.”
Various PJD members, on the other hand, were caught dismayed at this decision. Some of them believe that the decision came to force them loose from 10 to 20 seats in the upcoming elections.
The Moroccan Times.
