Arab Spring… Islamist Party Wins Parliament Elections in Moderate Morocco

Another win for the Islamists.

Abdelilah Benkirane, the secretary general of Morocco’s Islamist Justice and Development Party center, flanked by Ahmed Ibn Harrat a member of his party 3 rd right, serves tea to celebrate with members of the small Al Badil Al Hadari party that Moroccan authorities banned on Fev, 20, 2008, after it became clear Benkirane’s party is on track to become the largest party in Morocco’s new parliament, at the Party headquarters in Rabat, Morocco, Sunday Nov. 27, 2011. (AP)

The Islamist Justice and Development Party dominated Moroccan Parliamentary elections this weeekend.
The AP reported:

The victory of an Islamist Party in Morocco’s parliamentary elections appears to be one more sign that religious-based parties are benefiting the most from the new freedoms brought by the Arab Spring.

Across the Middle East, parties referencing Islam have made great strides, offering an alternative to corrupt, long serving dictators, who have often ruled with close Western support.

The Justice and Development Party dominated Morocco’s elections through a combination of good organization, an outsider status and not being too much of a threat to Morocco’s all-powerful king.

By taking 107 seats out of the 395 seats, almost twice as many as the second place finisher, the party ensured that King Mohammed VI must pick the next prime minister from its ranks and to form the next government out of the dozen parties in Morocco’s parliament.

It is the first time the PJD — as it is known by its French initials — will be part of the government and its outsider status could be just what Morocco, wracked by pro-democracy protests, needs.

Although it didn’t bring down the government, the North African kingdom of 32 million, just across the water from Spain, was still touched by the waves of unrest that swept the Arab world following the revolution in Tunisia, with tens of thousands marching in the streets calling for greater freedoms and less corruption.

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