Moroccan youth push for political representation

With three months to go until legislative elections, Moroccan young people are seeking increased representation in parliament.

By Siham Ali for Magharebia in Rabat – 26/08/11

Young political activists in Morocco recently formed a new group to press for reform and to urge the creation of a national electoral list reserved for youth ahead of the November 25th legislative elections.

Members of the newly created "Moroccan Youth Movement for Political Representation Now" met with Youth Minister Moncef Belkhayat on Tuesday (August 23rd) in Rabat to advocate for a national list reserved for young people, half men and half women. Twenty-nine youth organizations and 17 civil society groups are affiliated with the movement.

The youth list will guarantee young people's representation in the Chamber of Representatives while at the same time encouraging "a renewal of the elite and inject new blood into institutions", according to the activists.

The movement also proposed the creation of a national fund to support young people that will protect their interests.

Youth Minister Belkhayat gave his support to the national list proposal, citing a recent royal speech that stressed the need to foster the emergence of new political elites among young people.

The youth initiative follows lobbying by the women's movement, which has pushed for a list to be reserved solely for women. The interior ministry previously proposed the adoption of a 90-seat national list for young people and women.

According to Abdelkader Kihel, general secretary for young people with the Istiqlal Party, the government's proposal was welcomed by young people but attempts have since been made to hijack it.

"Political parties have a problem with young people. There is a huge gap between what they say and what they do," he said.

The youth movement's goal is to bring about a full-scale renewal of the elites, which are one of the driving forces of democracy, according to Ali El Yazghi, secretary-general for young people with the Socialist Union of Popular Forces. He said that this renewal must happen immediately with election lists reserved for young people.

Young people from the movement say they are determined to achieve their goal of rejuvenating the political elite and accuse parties of having no clear vision on the issue.

If the movement's demands are not met, they plan to step up their campaign with protests to call for young people to be represented in the legislature.

The idea of a national list is an issue on which no consensus has yet been reached, government spokesman Khalid Naciri told reporters August 18th. He stated that there are differences of opinion between those who want it to be reserved solely for women, those who want it to be reserved for young people, and those who believe there is no point in implementing it.

"You must put yourselves in the shoes of the Ministry of the Interior, which is trying to establish a consensus by consulting political parties," Naciri said.

The ball is now in the court of political parties, which have differing views on the matter. The president of the National Council of the Party of Justice and Development, Saaddine Othmani, said that his party proposed that a third of the list be reserved for women, a third reserved for young people and the remainder for Moroccans living overseas.

In his view, young people should set up bodies of their own to solve the problem of representation as there cannot be several national lists.

As for the women's movement, the national co-ordinator for the Movement of Egalitarian Democracy, Khadija Rebbah, said that the national list should be reserved for women only. She said positive discrimination has historically focused on the sex with the least representation, whereas young people are an age-based category.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/08/26/feature-02.