Moroccan Political Rivals Face Off in Rabat Legislative Race

Nabil Benabdallah officially announced his candidacy on Saturday evening. In a statement to the Al Oâmk website, the secretary of the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS) explained the reasons behind this surprise decision. He said that if he did not run in the upcoming legislative elections, it would not have been logical either with himself or with his "various calls to citizens to vote in order to fight the money barons."

The PPS "is waging this battle for democracy in order to defend its principles, its ideas and its program and aspires for its candidates to gain the trust of citizens by fighting dirty money and corruption. [...] It is natural for the party’s secretary general to be at the forefront of this fight," the party said in a message posted on its Facebook page.

Nabil Benabdallah, a candidate in the Rabat-Océan constituency, will have as his challenger the outgoing head of government, the leader of the Islamist party. When asked about a confrontation with El Othmani, the PPS leader said he had no intention of confronting anyone. There is also a confrontation between Badr El Tanachri of the USFP, Mehdi Bensaidi of the PAM, Meriem Benkhouia of the Left Federation, Abdelilah Bouzidi of the Istiqlal and Isâak Charia, the secretary general of the Free Moroccan Party in the same constituency.