House of Representatives Adopts Four Government Organic Bills on Electoral Process
The House of Representatives adopted, on Friday, March 5, 2021, with a majority of votes, four Government Organic Bills included in the agenda of the extraordinary session. The Bills cover the House of Representatives, the House of Councilors, the election of the members of councils of communes, and political parties. The adoption took place during a plenary sitting chaired by the Speaker of House of Representatives Habib El Malki and attended by Minister of Interior Abdelouafi Laftit.
In his presentation of the Bills, the Minister of Interior noted the Government's will to draft the legislative texts that regulate elections within "constructive consensus," highlighting the main stages of consultations with political actors following "a participatory approach that is based on committed neutrality and shared responsibility."
Mr. Laftit noted that these legislative texts aim to advance the electoral system in our country with a view to keep pace with the developments and dynamic marking the Moroccan society. They also aim to enrich the texts in force with more electoral guarantees and support the credibility and moralization of the electoral process.
Government Organic Bill 04.21 amending and supplementing Organic Law 27.11 relating to the House of Representatives stipulates the replacement of the national electoral constituency with regional constituencies to guarantee a wider representation of women in the legislative institution. The Bill also stipulates the political commitment of electees through revoking the membership to the House of Representatives of any deputy who renounces their political affiliation. It also enacts several measures that aim to moralize electoral campaigns and value the parliamentary action through increasing the cases of incompatibility with the membership to the House of Representatives.
The main amendment included in Government Organic Bill 05.21 amending and supplementing Organic Law 28.11 relating to the House of Councilors stipulates the formation by the most represented employers' associations of a parliamentary group within the House of Councilors while ensuring its independence. This is to enable these associations to voice the concerns of economic actors and the aspirations and expectations of national enterprises, in a way that serves the national economy.
The most prominent amendments introduced by Government Organic Bill 06.21, amending and supplementing Organic Law 59.11 on the election of the members of the councils of communes, concern regulating the procedure of running in the elections of the councils of prefectures and provinces and promoting women's representation in these councils and in the communal councils. It also introduces other improvements that concern the election of the members of councils of communes. The Bill devotes one-third of the seats in each prefectural or provincial council to women while also allowing them to run for the other two thirds on an equal basis to men.
The House of Representatives also adopted Government Organic Bill 07.21 amending and supplementing Organic Law 29.11 on political parties, which introduced prominent innovations that lay the necessary legislative foundations to implement the high directives of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, where he called for increasing the government grants allocated to parties to accompany them and incite them to modernize their working mechanisms, in a way that advances the quality of their performance and of legislations and public policies, while allocating a portion of those grants to the competencies employed in the areas of reflection, analysis, and innovation.
The legislative sitting, which lasted for about six hours, was marked by the statements of the representatives of the parliamentary groups and caucus and other deputies, where they voiced their positions regarding the amendments and articles included in the Government Organic Bills examined during the sitting.