Morocco Lawmakers Consider Revoking Mandates of Deputies Facing Corruption Charges

The House of Representatives has decided to refer the files of deputies prosecuted by justice for embezzlement or misappropriation of public funds and breach of trust to the Constitutional Court so that they can be deprived of their parliamentary mandates. Amendments to the internal regulations are being drafted for this purpose, reports the daily Assabah.

The "ghost" deputies, whose number is increasing from term to term, are also threatened with dismissal after a one-year absence. The Bureau of the House of Representatives will verify the validity of the medical certificates provided by some of these "ghost" deputies to justify their absence, and take the necessary measures. Some of them have continued to receive their 35,000 dirham allowances and other benefits.

The Bureau of the House of Representatives will also toughen the sanctions against parliamentarians who do not declare all their assets, or who make false declarations, or who refuse to comply with this obligation. Letters will be sent to the deputies concerned to remind them to order. If the offending deputy does not correct himself, the Court of Auditors will be seized to freeze his membership, or even deprive him of his mandate.