Morocco on Tuesday appointed a new parliament speaker following last September’s parliamentary elections.
Ahmed Touizi, from the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), which won the largest number of seats in the elections, was elected by a majority of MPs and replaces former speaker Rachid Talbi Alami.
He secured 220 votes in the 395-seat House of Representatives.
He defeated opposition Justice and Development Party (PJD) candidate Driss Azami Al Idrissi, who received 59 votes. A total of 369 ballots were cast, including 60 invalid votes.
Touizi was the candidate of Morocco's newly formed governing coalition, led by Prime Minister Fatima Zahra Mansouri.
Under Article 52 of the House of Representatives' internal regulations, the speaker is elected by secret ballot and must secure an absolute majority of the chamber's members in the first round.
The opposition PJD, which has an Islamist orientation, nominated its parliamentary group leader, Driss Azami Al Idrissi, in what it described as a symbolic challenge intended to introduce competition into the speaker's election.
The party acknowledged that its candidate had little prospect of winning, given the parliamentary majority backing Touizi.
PAM formally selected Touizi as its candidate on Tuesday morning following a meeting of its expanded political bureau committee and parliamentary representatives.
He was chosen from a shortlist that included former Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi and Higher Education Minister Azzedine El Midaoui.
Meanwhile, the National Rally of Independents (RNI), which finished second in September's election, abstained from voting after being excluded from the new governing coalition announced by Mansouri on Monday.
The ruling coalition brings together PAM, the Istiqlal Party, the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP) and the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS).
The RNI, which led the previous government under former Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, has moved into opposition.
While Morocco’s 23 September elections significantly reshaped the distribution of parliamentary seats and its political landscape, they were marked by apathy, particularly from younger voters disillusioned with the political system.
Voter turnout was only 38.2%. While Morocco is officially a constitutional monarchy, the king still wields significantly more power than elected representatives and the country is often described as an autocracy with a façade of democratic politics.
