National Rally of Independents leads in Moroccan lower house elections

RABAT, Sept. 9– The liberal National Rally of Independents has won a big victory in Morocco’s lower house elections held on Wednesday, taking 97 of all 395 seats, with 96 percent of votes counted, Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit said early Thursday. The Justice and Development Party, which won the previous two general elections to lead the Moroccan government…

RABAT, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) — The liberal National Rally of Independents has won a big victory in Morocco’s lower house elections held on Wednesday, taking 97 of all 395 seats, with 96 percent of votes counted, Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit said early Thursday.

The Justice and Development Party, which won the previous two general elections to lead the Moroccan government over the last 10 years, fell to the eighth place with only 12 seats.

According to the results, the Authenticity and Modernity Party ranked second with 82 seats, while the conservative Istiqlal ranked third with 78 seats.

The Socialist Union of Popular Forces obtained 35 seats, the Popular Movement got 26 seats, and the Party of Progress and Socialism 20 seats.

The interior minister added that the Constitutional Union secured 18 seats, and the other parties shared 12 seats.

The turnout in this parliamentary election reached 50.35 percent, the minister said. Enditem