Morocco's long-ruling Islamists have suffered a crushing defeat to liberal parties in parliamentary elections, according to preliminary results announced early Thursday.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
The co-ruling moderate Islamists Justice and Development Party (PJD) saw its support collapse from 125 seats to just 12, far behind its main liberal rivals.
Morocco's liberal National Rally of Independents party (R NI) won the most seats followed by another liberal party, the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM).
RNI, led by billionaire agriculture minister Aziz Akhannouch, took 97 of the 395-seat parliament, followed by PAM with 82 seats and the conservative Istiqlal with 78 seats.
The PJD, as stated, which had been a coalition partner in the previous two governments, only took 12 seats after a count of 96% of all parliamentary seats. The results show a massive turnaround in fortunes as the RNI had only won 37 seats at the last election in 2016, while the PJD took 125.
RNI ministers controlled the key economic portfolios of agriculture, finance, trade and tourism in the outgoing government.
Turnout in Wednesday's elections improved to 50.3%, up from 43% in 2016, as Morocco held parliamentary and local elections on the same day.
Morocco is a constitutional monarchy where the king holds sweeping powers in the North African country. He picks the prime minister from the party that won the most seats in parliament who will then form a cabinet and submits it for the King's approval.
The Palace has the last say on appointments concerning key departments including the interior, foreign affairs and defense.
New voting rules were expected to make it harder for bigger parties to win as many seats as before, meaning the RNI will have to enter into coalition talks to form a government.
The palace also sets the economic agenda for the country of 37 million people and has commissioned a development model that the new government is being asked to implement.
In a statement on Wednesday, the PJD accused rivals of buying votes, without naming any or providing details.
Despite having been the largest party since 2011, the PJD has failed to stop laws it opposes, including one to bolster the French language in education and another to allow cannabis for medical use.
"We're very concerned as we watch the progress of the national election," the party said in a statement. "We've seen several irregularities."
Akhannouch called the claims "an admission of failure."
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
