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Morocco’s PJD Party Suffers Landslide Defeat in Elections: Experts Analyze Causes
Tuesday 23 November 2021, by
The crushing defeat of the Party of Justice and Development (PJD) continues to provoke reactions among political actors. This is the case of Mohamed Sassi, one of the leaders of the Unified Socialist Party (PSU), who declared that the defeat of the PJD in the September 8 elections was due to the absence of Abdelillah Benkirane and the Covid-19 pandemic.
The political leader was speaking at a meeting organized on Sunday in Rabat by the Prometheus Institute for Democracy and Human Rights (IPDDH). In addition to the reasons mentioned, he also stated that the absence of a real political rival and the restrictions imposed on the party’s associations and its ideological arm, the Movement of Unity and Reform (MUR), have also caused the electoral downfall of the PJD.
However, the party’s troubles did not begin with the elections. They were insidious and were engendered by the PJD’s withdrawal from the Justice and Charity circle, and the normalization with Israel, in addition to "moral scandals".
He added that the most important factor was also the lack of "organizational cohesion" that distinguished the political formation. For him, the fact that "members of the party and the MUR did not even vote in the elections" is proof that the downfall was inevitable.
Mohamed Sassi also argued that the many years spent by the Islamists at the head of the government have pushed their opponents to resort to all means to wrest power from them. This justified the media war, the money war and the flourishing of new registrants.