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Friday, July 17, 2009

Morocco party calls strike in row over first woman mayor

RABAT: The party of a lawyer chosen to be the first female mayor of Marrakesh said Wednesday it had called a strike to protest a recent court decision that would make her unable to take up the post. Fatima Zahra Mansouri’s Party for Authenticity and Modernity said in a statement that the 48-hour strike had been called to “protest the plot against the democratic process.”

A court on Monday invalidated 33-year-old Mansouri’s June 12 election to the municipal council in Marrakesh’s Menara district – due to irregularities in the voting after a complaint was filed by an opposing candidate – and called for a new poll.

If as it stands Mansouri is denied her seat on the municipal council she would be unable to assume the position of mayor of one of Morocco’s biggest cities and a popular tourist destination.

Mansouri’s election as mayor in a municipal council vote on June 22 was only the second time a woman has taken a mayoral position in the north African kingdom.

“Her election reflects the image of a modern Morocco,” the secretary general of PAM, Cheikh Mohammad Biyadillah, said at the time.

Mansouri studied law in France, and is a daughter of a former assistant to the local authority chief in Marrakesh, which has a population of more than one million.

Source: The Daily Star.
Link: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=104294.

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