MOROCCO: ELECTORAL CAMPAIGNS HEAT UP IN FES, MEKNES

C O N F I D E N T I A L RABAT 001248

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/27/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM MO
SUBJECT: MOROCCO: ELECTORAL CAMPAIGNS HEAT UP IN FES, MEKNES

Classified by Polcouns Craig Karp for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) Summary: On a pre-election tour of the Moroccan
"heartland," poloffs found broad cynicism towards elections
and expectations of low voter turnout, even among some
politicians. Fes, a spiritual center with a medieval core,
and its imperial twin Meknes are politicized but less
modernized than the coastal areas and Marrakech. Our
discussions confirmed that youth are generally quite cynical
and alienated from political parties and candidates, and will
stay away from the polls in droves. Almost everyone we spoke
with agreed that the GOM will refrain from tampering with the
electoral process but parties and candidates may not. A race
for four seats in the second constituency in Fes promises to
be especially heated and could get rough on election day.
End Summary.

People Know the Lingo, But Still Aren't Voting
-------------- -


2. (C) In advance of the two-week campaign "season," which
will begin in late August, poloffs undertook a two-day trip
July 23 and 24 to Meknes, Fes, and Sefrou, meeting with youth
and human rights NGOs, parliamentary candidates (and
incumbents),and local government officials. Our
conversations with two different youth-oriented NGOs
confirmed the prevailing assumption that youth feel alienated
from the political process and disenchanted with perceived
corruption and ineffectiveness of politicians.


3. (C) The importance of political participation in
democracy has made its way into the national political
discourse -- one youth leader spoke of voting as both a
"right and a responsibility," echoing language from recent
Royal speeches and civil society get-out-the-vote campaigns.
However, most young people complained that politicians paid
lip service to people's concerns only during the electoral
campaign period. Once in office, promises were immediately
forgotten and the office holder was rarely seen in the
district. The unempowered demographics -- youth, the poor,
unemployed diploma-holders, people living outside the
Rabat-Casablanca corridor -- were left out. Young people
observed little progress since the last legislative elections
in 2002, noting that this year's touted party platforms were
"not real programs, just broad strategies."


4. (C) This disinterest in the elections is not confined to
youth. No one we spoke with had anything but pessimistic
predictions of voter turnout. NGO leaders, MPs and local
government officials -- including the PJD mayor of Meknes and
the independent mayor of Sefrou -- predicted that people will
not vote because they do not see tangible results from their
elected officials. If people vote, it is only rarely because
politicians are able to articulate any real issues to
distinguish their ideas from another candidate's. Rather,
they cast their ballots on the basis of tribal or party
affiliation, family background, or because of the promise of
material reward, whether that award is immediate (vote
buying) or hypothetical (fanciful campaign promises like
pothole-filling that the candidate may not even have the
power to keep).

Corruption? The Government Washes Their Hands of It
-------------- --------------


5. (C) When asked about whether he expected to see
corruption on election day, the director of the Fes-based
Center for Human Rights echoed an often-expressed sentiment
that corruption was unlikely to come from the central
government, but that vote-buying and voter intimidation could
well occur at local levels where the most bitter, deep-rooted
political rivalries play out. Further, he argued that it was
not enough for the central government itself to renounce
corruption and step back, hoping to lead by example. The
state is vacating its responsibilities, he said, by not
taking a more pro-active role in seeking out and punishing
those who seek to corrupt the voting process, at all levels
of power. (Comment: Despite the director's cynicism, his
assertion that the GOM will refrain from tampering with
election results represents a major step forward in Moroccan
politics. There are increasing signs that the government is
taking a credible anti-corruption stance. End Comment.)


6. (C) Our interlocutors warmly welcomed the idea of
international election observers, but some voiced concerns
about constraints on the observers' real power. Some,
including the director of the Center for Human Rights, said
they feared that the observers' presence would be largely
symbolic and they would not be able or free to sniff out
petty corruption on the local level where it is most likely
to occur.

Hot Races in Fes
--------------


7. (SBU) Whatever the weather, September 7th is shaping up
to be a hot day in Fes. Due to government redistricting (in
part to limit the number of seats won by the Islamist Party
for Justice and Development),the race for four seats in the
second constituency in Fes now pits current MP and flamboyant
local businessman Aziz Labbour against his bitter rival, the
Istiqlal Party's old style strongman Hamid Chabat, as well as
Lahcen Daoudi, vice president of the chamber and one of the
PJD leaders, and more than a dozen others. During our visit
to the constituency, we were regaled with multiple tales of
election-inspired violence, voter intimidation, and even mass
arson in years past. Fierce rivalry and tit for tat
bureaucratic battles among local politicians, most with major
commercial interests of their own in the local economy, is
widely seen as having stalled the march of development in
Morocco's third largest city. A major tourist destination,
Fes has literally been left in the dust by rival Marrakech,
whose hotel building boom has sustained ever-increasing
numbers of foreign visitors in recent years.


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RILEY