Moroccan PM accused of election rigging
Morocco’s billionaire Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch was accused by a major opposition party of electoral fraud after a legislative election on April 23, The New Arab and agencies reported.
The Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), the country’s ruling party from 2011 to 2021, accused the prime minister of fraud after they lost an election in the Fez region – situated in the north.
The legislative election was only held as the South Fez district’s representative was found to have committed acts “that violate the ethics of public office”.
The PJD were trounced in the poll, finishing a distant second behind the National Rally of Independents (RNI), the prime minister’s party and one of three parties in the coalition government.
RNI candidate Khalid Al-Ajli earned 9,767 ballots (52% of the vote) over six candidates. The PJD candidate got 3,854 votes.
Bitterly disappointed with the election result, the local branch of the Islamist party said in a statement: “We express our condemnation and denunciation of the shameful and undemocratic practices carried out by the party of the head of government, who has openly disregarded the laws by buying loyalties and harnessing intermediaries and brokers to sabotage the electoral process.”
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Local news website Fes News Media claimed that the campaign was marred with “the use of illicit money, bribery, mobilising intermediaries and brokers, especially in rural areas, posing a blatant challenge to the constitution, law, authorities, democratic choice, and the integrity and transparency of the electoral process.”
Akhannouch, the CEO of Akwa Group and one of Africa’s 15 richest men, has a long list of accusations against him for fraudulent practices.
In 2017, Mr Akhannouch, then the Minister of Agriculture, was accused by the then Secretary General of the Istiqlal Party (one of the parties that make up the coalition government) and former Fez mayor Hamid Chabat, accused him of stealing 13 billion Moroccan dirhams ( $1.29 billion) intended to go towards gas compensation.
During the 2021 general election, he was accused of election rigging by Abdellatif Ouhabi, the Secretary General of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), now part of the three-party coalition.
After the 2021 election, when Akhannouch and his party won the highest amount of the vote share (27.7%), parties across the political spectrum accused the fuel tycoon of winning purely due to fraud and vote buying.
The New Arab
