Morocco voter turnout up from 2007 in parliamentary election

Voter turnout in Morocco's parliamentary election held on Friday was 45 percent, compared to 37 percent in the last election, Morocco's Interior Minister Taieb Cherqaoui said Friday night. "Voter turnout across the country reaches around 45 percent," Cherqaoui told a press conference here. The figure, which was higher than the 37 percent turnout in the 2007 election and exceeded observers' expectation, did not beat the turnouts in 2002 and 1997, or 52 and 57 percent respectively. The turnout was a "clear evidence that Morocco's political reform process is growing mature," said government spokesman Khalid Naciri. The parliamentary election, originally scheduled for September 2012, was brought forward following the widespread unrest in the Arab world. A total of 7,102 candidates from 31 parties competed for 395 seats. The election was held less than five months after a July 1 referendum on a new constitution, which was proposed by King Mohammed VI in an attempt to appease anti-government sentiment after the turmoils in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Under the new constitution, the prime minister and the parliament are granted more power. The king will appoint the prime minister from the largest party in the parliament to head the government. The prime minister is empowered to dissolve the parliament and appoint and dismiss senior officials -- powers that were restricted to the king before the referendum. On the eve of the legislative election, more than 1,000 college graduates gathered near the parliament building in central Rabat, calling for boycotting the election which they said would not bring about changes in the country. In Morocco, which has an unemployment rate of about 10 percent, some 20 percent of college graduates do not have jobs.