House of Representatives Adopts By Majority of Votes the Bill Amending Its Rules of Procedure
The House of Representatives adopted by a majority of votes on Tuesday, July 16, 2024, a bill amending the Rules of Procedure of the House. The adoption took place during a legislative plenary sitting chaired by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Rachid Talbi El Alami. 117 Representatives voted for the Bill while two Representatives abstained from voting.
The approved amendments, as ratified by the Committee on the Rules of Procedure, covered 27 Rules related to ensuring the representation of the Parliamentary Opposition in the positions of Quaestor and Clerk within the Board of the House and the appointment of the members of the fact-finding committees by the Board of the House. The other amendments aim to specify the competences of the Standing Committees regarding the House's relationship to constitutional bodies and institutions.
As regards the amendments linked to the Parliamentary Code of Ethics, they focused on creating the mechanisms necessary to imposing the mandatory application of the provisions of said Code, in a way that would moralize parliamentary life and anchor trust in elected institutions.
The amendment of the Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives brought some novel provisions to the Parliamentary Code of Ethics in line with the Royal Message addressed to the Parliament on its 60th Anniversary. In this respect, His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may Allah glorify and assist him, underscored the imperative of moralizing parliamentary life through the establishment of a legally binding Parliamentary Code of Ethics for both Houses of the Parliament, the achievement of harmony between representative democracy and participatory democracy, and the amelioration of the quality of the elected and parliamentary elite.
In the same regard, the amendments detailed some commitments of the members of the House in terms of applying the Parliamentary Code of Ethics. In this context, the amendments stipulate that the members of the House must declare any case of incompatibility with the membership of the House. The members of the House must also notify the Board of the House of any gifts they receive during their performance of an official mission and must place said gifts at the Museum of the House.
To raise awareness of the importance of the Parliamentary Code of Ethics, the amendments included the approval by the Board of the House of the elaboration of a sworn statement that the members of the House must sign at the onset of the Legislative Term to attest to having read the provisions of the Rules of Procedure, and particularly the Parliamentary Code of Ethics.
It should be noted that the amended version of the Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives includes 405 Rules divided over 12 Titles. The provisions cover mainly the Bodies and structures of the House and their prerogatives, the functions entrusted to the House of Representatives in terms of legislation, control, public policy evaluation, and parliamentary diplomacy, in addition to titles that regulate communication, participatory democracy, the relationship of the House to other constitutional institutions, and the Parliamentary Code of Ethics.
