Doves and roses help illiterate Moroccans vote

Ballots for Friday's parliamentary elections in Morocco feature symbols for each party such as a rose, a dove or a tractor to help illiterate voters identify them. A total of 33 symbols have been employed to represent the 31 parties and two independent candidates vying for the 395 seats up for grabs in the lower house of parliament which is elected for a five-year term. "These symbols should allow Moroccans, especially uneducated voters, to recognize the party they intend to vote for," the interior ministry, which organizes the election, said in a statement. The north African kingdom has a nationwide illiteracy rate of around 32 percent but the rate is much higher in rural areas, especially among women. The symbol for the moderately Islamist Justice and Development Party, which is widely expected to gain at the polls and which promises a 50-percent jump in the minimum wage, is a lamp. Prime Minister Abaas El Fassi's Independence Party uses a weigh scale as its symbol while Finance Minister Salaheddine Mezouar's National Rally of Independents Party is represented by a dove. Voters wanting to cast their ballot for Morocco's main centre-left force, the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, must check the box beside a symbol for a rose. Other symbols used by smaller parties include a car, a dolphin, a palm tree, a tractor, a candle, a rooster, a plane and a plowshare. "I am not into politics but my son asked me to check the symbol for the ear or corn," said an old woman as she left a polling station in Morocco's seaside capital of Rabat, referring to the symbol for the Popular Movement Party. Campaign posters and flyers feature the symbols, as do television commercials, and voters often call a party by its symbol instead of its official name. Some 13.5 million Moroccans out of a population of 35 million were eligible to vote in Friday's legislative polls, the first since a new constitution which had been proposed by King Mohamed VI was approved in a July 1 referendum. The amended constitution gives parliament a greater role in the legislative process and strengthens the role of prime minister, who now must be appointed by the king from the party which wins the most seats in the assembly. Morocco's complex proportional representation system lends itself to fractured parliaments and no party is expected to obtain an absolute majority on its own. The winning party will have to govern in a coalition.