Relatives of Morocco’s king lose in race to parliament

Three relatives of the king of Morocco failed to win seats in parliament during last Friday’s legislative elections that saw the moderate Islamist Jusitice and Development Party (PJD) winning most votes.

Brothers Jamal and Hasan Ahizoun, both uncles of King Mohammed VI, lost their race to the parliament in the Khénifra district.

Hasan ran in the list of Finance Minister Salaheddine Mezouar’s Rally of Independents party and Jamal was a candidate of the Authenticity and Modernity, which was established by Fouad al-Himma, a friend of King Mohammed.

Before the elections, Jamal told Morocco’s al-Jadid newspaper that he was running “like any citizen who seeks to serve his region and its people.”

Meanwhile, PJD candidate Abd el-Wahd Bennani, an uncle of the King’s wife Lalla Salma, also lost his election bid in Sidi Sliman district.

The failed candidacy of the King’s relatives was seen by local media as part of the “democratic climate” in the country.

Himma, who was former state secretary to the interior minister and a classmate of King Muhammad at the Royal College, became a target of the pro-democracy February 20 movement.

They accused him, along with the king’s advisor Mounir el Majidi, of corruption and held placards showing their pictures in protests throughout Morocco.

Other figures seen as closely orbiting the monarch have been targeted by the youth movement, which continues to demonstrate throughout Morocco even after the elections.


(Written by Mustapha Ajbaili)