First Meeting to Activate Central Commission, Provincial and Regional Commissions for Election Monitoring

Following the creation of the Central Commission in charge of monitoring the elections, composed of the minister of Interior and the president of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and in application of the High Royal Instructions addressed by HM King Mohammed VI to the minister of the Interior and the president of the Public Prosecutor’s Office to ensure the smooth running of the upcoming elections and to deal with all practices that could harm these elections, the Central Commission for monitoring elections was activated on Tuesday at a meeting held for this purpose at the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior. On this occasion, the Provincial Commissions for monitoring the elections at the territorial level were set up. They are composed, in each prefecture, province and district prefecture, of the wali or the governor, the public prosecutor. Also, Regional Commissions were set up. They are charged to accompany the work of the Provincial Commissions at the level of each region of the Kingdom, said a statement by the minister of the Interior. The main mission of the Central Commission and the Provincial and Regional Commissions, added the statement, is to take practical measures to ensure the preservation and respect of the honesty of the electoral process, through the monitoring of the various stages of the above-mentioned operations, to ensure their security and to address, on the spot, anything that is likely to affect it, from registration on the voters’ lists to the announcement of the results of the election and the election of bodies and structures of local councils and professional chambers. The Central Commission and the Provincial and Regional Commissions shall carry out their duties in strict compliance with the laws and regulations in force, without prejudice to the powers and prerogatives conferred by law on legislative, administrative and judicial bodies. In order to make the next electoral process more ethical and to protect it from anything that could undermine the will of the voters and their free choice, the aforementioned Commissions shall ensure the implementation of measures that can immediately detect offenses related to electoral operations whenever they have the necessary data, and to initiate the investigation procedure or legal proceedings if necessary. Given the advantages of the participatory approach in the management of the preparations for the next elections, the Central Commission will hold regular meetings with the leaders of the political parties in order to keep them informed of the progress of the preparations related to the different stages of the electoral operations and to collect their views and opinions as well as their proposals regarding the measures to be taken before their official adoption.