Moroccans vote on king's new constitution

Friday, July 1, 2011

BENSLIMANE, Morocco (AP) — Moroccans braved searing temperatures Friday to vote for a new constitution their king says will bring the country much needed democratic reform.

While the constitution, like all past referendums, is expected to be approved by a landslide, the real test will be in the turnout indicating whether Moroccans have faith in the reform process of 47-year-old King Mohammed VI.

The February 20 pro-democracy movement, whose demonstrations across the country sparked the king to amend the constitution, has called for a boycott, denouncing the new document as little more than democratic window dressing on a monarchy that continues to be absolute.

The voters who showed up at the nearly 40,000 polling stations around the country Friday tended to talk more about their faith in the king, rather than something as abstract as a new constitution.

"There has already been so much progress and it is much better than before," said Cafile Roqiya, a 54-year-old teacher as he prepared to cast a yes vote in the Benslimane, a small city of 40,000 45 miles (60 kilometers) from Rabat. "The king has kept us stable and at peace amid much upheaval."

In Washington Friday, a State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, said that the United States welcomed the peaceful conduct of the referendum during what it called a period of profound change for Morocco.

"We welcome the referendum as an important step in Morocco's democratic development. We feel this referendum did allow the people to express their views" on some of the issues outlined in King Mohammed's reforms.

A popular tourist destination, this generally stable Muslim kingdom is a staunch United States ally in a strategic swath of northern Africa that has suffered terrorist attacks — and in recent months, popular uprisings against autocratic regimes.

Morocco, like the rest of the Middle East, was swept by pro-democracy demonstrations protesting a lack of freedoms, weak economy and political corruption.

Even as the government and many politicians are despised, the king remains popular and for now seems to have managed the popular disaffection by presenting a new constitution that guarantees the rights of women and minorities, and increases the powers of the parliament and judiciary, ostensibly at the expense of his own.

Preliminary results are expected late Friday. Though the outcome is not in doubt, the constitution has still been backed by a huge media campaign, with government institutions, religious preachers, political parties, and non-governmental organizations all mobilized to get out the "yes" vote.

In some cases pro-constitution demonstrators have attacked democracy activists protesting against the vote.

A low turnout would either indicate support for the February 20 call for a boycott or a continuing disenchantment with the king's policies.

"Can you imagine if he got just 15 percent of the vote, the king would have to abdicate," joked Maati Monjib, a political analyst and president of the Ibn Rushd Center, which promotes investigative journalism. "They say yes for the king, like he's a candidate."

Turnout for much of Friday was light as people appeared to be staying away from the polls as the temperature reached 100 degrees (38 C). In the rural villages outside Benslimane, polling stations reported about 25 to 30 percent turnout by noon, while in Rabat's working class Yacoub Mansour district the transparent ballot boxes were still fairly empty by 2 p.m.

The Interior Ministry, however, reported that turnout was 70 percent at the two-thirds of the polling stations that had been counted by 9:45 pm.

Activists have emphasized the need to be wary of the government playing number games because of the sensitivity of vote, noting that turnout was officially 37 percent in the 2007 parliamentary elections.

"There was a lot of fraud in the last election and certainly there will be in today's referendum, particularly over the level of participation," said Abdel Qader Fartouti, an activist with the Islamist Adel wal Ihsane (Justice and Charity) movement in Benslimane, which supports the boycott.

He noted how in the 2007 election there were 15.5 million voters and now, despite the rise in population and a drop in the voting age, there were 13 million, even though there are 20 million people of voting age in the country.

Activists say the government is keeping the official number of voters low so apparent turnout will be higher.

In another possible sign of plans to manage the outcome of the vote, poll workers with reformist sympathies were asked not to work on the referendum.

Ahmed Arib, a 49-year-old civil servant who for two decades worked at polling stations in Benslimane during elections, was told by the Interior Ministry not to participate.

"They told me we respect your opinions and since you are part of February 20 movement, we don't want to offend your sensibilities," he said, adding that he knew at least three other colleagues this had happened to.

Traditionally in Morocco's countryside, local party officials and rural notables mobilize the often illiterate peasants and bring them en masse to the polls to vote.

Older people are also more likely to vote because they remember a time when not voting could get them into trouble with the authorities.

Younger people, however, could be seen in the Yacoub Mansour district in Rabat as a few drifted into a school serving as a voting station and searched for their balloting room.

"The constitution can't solve all the problems, it is not a magic wand, but it will set the ground work for real political and legal reform," maintained Marwan Akroum, a 37-year-old businessman wearing a striped traditional robe as he sheltered from the bright sun after casting his vote.

"It depends on whether you see the glass as half full or half empty, whether you are optimist or pessimist, a lot (of good) has happened in the last six months."