PARLIAMENT: LOWER HOUSE COMMITTEE SET TO VOTE ON DRAFT PARTY LAW ON SEPTEMBER 27

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. -------------- 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) -------------- 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. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶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