US embassy cable - 05RABAT2043

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 RABAT 002043 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR NEA/MAG, NEA/OFI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, KDEM, KMPI, MO 
SUBJECT: PARLIAMENT:  LOWER HOUSE COMMITTEE SET TO VOTE ON 
DRAFT PARTY LAW ON SEPTEMBER 27 
 
REF: A. RABAT 1539 AND PREVIOUS 
     B. RABAT 2000 
 
1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  As the Interior, Decentralization and 
Infrastructure Committee in parliament's Chamber of 
Representatives (lower house) prepares to vote on the 
government's draft law on political parties on September 27, 
Post wishes to highlight for Washington readers key 
provisions in the draft legislation and the principal 
elements in the bill that have generated the most debate 
among political parties.  Once passed in committee, the 
legislation will have to be voted on in the 325-member lower 
house before it can be moved to the Chamber of Councilors 
(upper house).  The lower house has not yet announced whether 
it will hold an extraordinary session for this purpose, 
though reports indicate that such a session is a strong 
possibility.  If not, parliament will take up the legislation 
again when its 2005-2006 legislative session convenes on 
October 14.  END SUMMARY. 
 
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THE BILL AND ITS PROVISIONS 
--------------------------- 
 
2.  (U) The current bill, which was submitted to parliament 
at the close of its spring session in July 2005 (Ref A), is 
divided into 7 sections and 62 articles, which are summarized 
as follows: 
 
Title I:  General Provisions 
 
-- Any party whose purpose or goals are contrary to the 
Moroccan Constitution or whose aim is to attack the Islamic 
religion, the monarchic regime or the kingdom's territorial 
integrity shall be found null and void (Article 4) 
-- Any party that is founded on a religious, linguistic, 
ethnic or regional basis shall be found null and void 
(Article 4) 
-- Members of Parliament shall not be allowed to switch 
parties until after their terms are over (Article 5) 
 
Title II:  Creation of Political Parties 
 
-- A party's founding members and leaders must be at least 23 
years old (Article 7) 
-- Founding members of a political party must submit to the 
Interior Ministry (MOI) a file containing a declaration of 
the constitution of the party bearing the signatures of three 
founding members and the written commitment of at least 300 
founding members to hold the party's constituent congress 
within one year of MOI authorization to create the party; 
these 300 individuals must represent at least half of 
Morocco's 16 regions, with no single region having less than 
5 percent of the total number of founding members (Article 8) 
-- The constituent congress must include at least 500 party 
delegates, including at least 3/4 of the party's founding 
members, resident in at least half of Morocco's 16 regions, 
with no single region having less than 5 percent of the total 
(Article 13) 
 
Title III:  Statutes, Organization and Administration of 
Political Parties 
 
-- Political parties shall be organized and administered in 
accordance with the "principles of democracy" granting the 
possibility to all members to participate effectively in the 
management of the party's different governing bodies (Article 
21) 
-- A party's statutes shall provide for the participation of 
a "proportional number of women and youth" in the management 
of the party's governing bodies (Article 22) 
-- The method of selecting and accrediting party candidates 
for any election shall be based on the "principles of 
democracy" (Article 24) 
 
Title IV: Financing of Political Parties 
 
-- A party's financial resources shall be limited to 
membership fees; donations, legacies and gifts, in cash or in 
kind, not exceeding 100,000 Dirhams (USD 11,000) per year per 
person; revenues from social or cultural activities; and 
government subsidies (Article 28) 
-- State subsidies shall be given only to parties that 
receive 5 percent of the national vote as taken in all local 
electoral districts as a contribution toward their operating 
expenses (Article 29) 
-- Parties must be created and operate solely on the basis of 
nationally raised funds (Article 31) 
-- Cash remittances to parties must not exceed 1,000 Dirhams 
(USD $110); larger amounts must be transmitted by bank check 
or postal check; any party expenditure exceeding 5,000 
Dirhams (USD 550) must be paid by check only (Article 32) 
-- A party's books must be closed out yearly, certified by a 
certified accountant, and kept for 10 years (Article 34) 
-- The amount of the government's subsidy to parties will be 
determined in proportion to the number of seats a party has 
in both houses of parliament and the number of votes obtained 
by the party in parliamentary elections (Article 35) 
-- Parties must submit each year by March 31 a full 
accounting of the previous year's revenues and expenses; any 
person can consult these disclosures at the Court of Auditors 
(Article 37) 
-- Any party that does not convene its national congress 
within a period of four years shall lose its right to the 
annual government subsidy (Article 40) 
 
Title V:  Unions of Political Parties 
 
-- Legally constituted political parties can freely unite 
themselves in unions with the status of a legal entity in 
view of "working collectively to achieve common objectives" 
(Article 41) 
-- The state's annual subsidy to political parties shall also 
be granted to unions that have accredited candidates in at 
least 3/4 of local legislative districts provided that the 
union wins at least 5 percent of the total popular vote 
(Article 47) 
-- The state's subsidy to party unions shall be calculated on 
the basis of the number of seats held by member parties in 
both houses of parliament and the number of votes obtained by 
the union or by the member parties of the union during 
general parliamentary elections (Article 48) 
 
Title VI:  Sanctions 
 
-- The Administrative Court of Rabat shall order the 
suspension of a party and the temporary closure of its 
headquarters as required by the MOI if a party's activities 
are deemed to "offend the public order" (Article 50) 
-- Any party that incites armed demonstrations in the 
streets, or which presents, due to its form as a military or 
paramilitary organization, the features of a combatant group 
or private militia, or which aims to seize power through 
violent means, harm the Muslim religion, the monarchic 
regime, or the kingdom's national integrity, will be 
dissolved by justified decree (Article 57) 
 
Title VII:  Transitory Provisions 
 
-- On a temporary basis, and until the results of the next 
parliamentary elections are announced, the state shall grant 
to party unions whose member parties won a total of at least 
5 percent of the votes cast during the last general 
parliamentary elections an annual subsidy based on the number 
of seats the parties have in parliament and on the total 
number of votes the parties obtained (Article 60) 
-- Parties that already exist as of the date this law goes 
into effect shall have two years to conform to its 
provisions; this compliance shall be effected during a 
regular or an extraordinary party congress (Article 62) 
 
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PARTY POSITIONS 
--------------- 
 
3.  (SBU) A steady stream of reporting in the Moroccan press 
since the lower house's Interior Committee began its 
examination of the party bill on September 11 gives some 
insight into the different party positions on the draft law. 
According to the reports, the Socialist Union of Popular 
Forces (USFP) joined with its Koutla coalition partner 
Istiqlal and the Popular Movement Union (UMP) teamed up with 
the National Rally of Independents (RNI) to present joint 
amendments to the committee.  The reports indicate that USFP 
and Istiqlal (who received, respectively, 13 percent and 12 
percent of the total popular vote in 2002) favor a raising of 
the funding threshold to 10 percent of the total vote rather 
than the 5 percent that is currently written into the bill. 
The two parties also support amending Article 15 to allow the 
MOI only 7 days rather than the 30 days that is currently 
stipulated to study a prospective party's application before 
approving the file. 
 
4.  (SBU) The UMP and RNI, both of which received about 10 
percent of the vote in 2002, favor the bill's 5-percent 
funding threshold as a protection against the exclusion of 
smaller parties.  Their proposed amendments also include the 
introduction of an eighth section that would address 
considerations for party mergers (party "unions" are already 
addressed in section 5).  The two parties also favor a 
strengthening of the law's provisions on youth representation 
with an eye toward ensuring greater participation of those 35 
years and below in party management structures.  The two 
parties argue that the government's subsidy should take into 
account the level of representation of women and youth in a 
party's governing bodies. 
 
5.  (SBU) According to the reports, the Islamist Party for 
Justice and Development (PJD) objects to the "ambiguity" of 
Article 4, which prohibits the founding of any party on the 
basis of religion, language, ethnicity, or region.  According 
to the party's lower house caucus leader, Abdellah Baha, this 
article is an "open door to dangerous interpretations." 
Cited in Moroccan daily Aujourd'hui Le Maroc, Baha explains 
that since the Moroccan Constitution defines Morocco as a 
Muslim state, "the forbidding of parties from having an 
Islamic reference could lead to their exclusion" from the 
political system.  The PJD proposes the article be amended to 
instead read that parties should not be based on "religious, 
linguistic, ethnic or regional exclusion."  In addition to 
this amendment, the PJD supports the raising of the funding 
threshold for parties to 7 percent so as to not "exclude 
small parties while protecting the political scene from 
balkanization," according to Baha.  The PJD also favors a 
general strengthening of the role of the judiciary in 
regulating and controlling Moroccan political parties and a 
lessening of the role of the MOI. 
 
6.  (SBU) Breaking ranks with its Koutla partners USFP and 
Istiqlal, the Socialist Alliance -- the smallest of 
parliament's seven lower house caucuses -- submitted its own 
list of proposed amendments.  In addition to favoring holding 
on to the current 5-percent funding threshold ("By 
definition, government aid should, in principle, favor those 
who do not have sufficient means," wrote the caucus' leading 
newspaper Al Bayane), the Alliance also proposes that no 
single sex should exceed two thirds of the leadership 
positions of a given party. 
 
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COMMENT 
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7.  (SBU)  By all accounts, debate within the Interior 
Committee on the draft party law has been intense and lively. 
 This despite the conventional wisdom that since the MOI 
consulted extensively with parties and civil society before 
submitting the law to parliament the bill would only be 
subjected to cursory changes in committee.  To facilitate 
this discussion further, the Mission will host on October 4 a 
debate for Moroccan stakeholders on the draft law.  This 
event comes on the heels of a similar activity organized by 
USAID's Parliament Support Project on September 14 (Ref B). 
END COMMENT. 
BUSH