Three Moroccan political parties, including the Islamists at the head of the government and the main liberal opposition formation, denounced the illegal use of money during the general election campaign scheduled for September 8 in the kingdom.
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"
We accuse the National Rally of Independents (RNI, liberal) of flooding the political scene with money,
" Secretary General of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM, liberal) Abdellatif Ouahbi told AFP on Thursday.
"Obscene use of funds"
The ruling Justice and Development Party (PJD, moderate Islamist) also condemned "
the obscene use of funds to attract voters and certain polling station supervisors
", without naming any party, according to a statement. Wednesday.
The latter party as well as the PAM and the RNI are the main parties that can claim to lead the next executive, led since the Arab Spring (2011) by the PJD, without however these Islamists controlling the strategic ministries.
The country's second political force, the PAM - founded by an influential royal advisor, Fouad Ali El Himma, in 2008 before he resigned in 2011 - was the main rival of the PJD, especially during the last legislative elections in 2016. While the RNI, which belongs to the government coalition, is headed by businessman Aziz Akhannouch, one of the kingdom's greatest fortunes, Minister of Agriculture since 2007 and described as close to the Royal Palace.
Start of the electoral campaign
In the aftermath of the last legislative elections, an arm wrestling had already opposed the RNI to the PJD.
Aziz Akhannouch had opposed the designated head of government Abdelilah Benkirane, then secretary general of the PJD, during unsuccessful negotiations to form a majority.
This impasse had plunged Morocco into an unprecedented political crisis lasting several months.
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Abdelilah Benkirane was then dismissed from his post by King Mohammed VI and replaced by the number two of the PJD, Saad Eddine El Othmani. In addition, the secretary general of the Party for Progress and Socialism (PPS, center-left), Nabil Benabdellah, also criticized the RNI for "
giving sums of money, in public view, to attract the candidates of 'other parties
', in an interview with local media this week. Asked by AFP, an official of the RNI preferred "
not to comment
" on these accusations already "
rejected
" by the party in a statement released on Tuesday.
The electoral campaign started a week ago. About thirty parties are mobilized to try to convince nearly 18 million Moroccans to travel to elect the 395 deputies of the House of Representatives and more than 31,000 municipal and regional elected officials.