MOROCCO – Parliament wraps up spring session
AFTER some lively encounters in the Moroccan parliament, the spring session of the 2011-2012 legislative year recently came
to a close.
At a press gathering the chairman of the chamber of representatives, Abdelkrim Ghellab, stressed that the first legislative year of the current government’s mandate was largely dominated by politics.
“This has been a political year ‘par excellence’, marked by the adoption of the new Constitution, the latest round of early legislative elections, leading to a change of power and the enshrinement of the principle linking responsibility and accountability,” Ghellab said.
During this spring session, the Parliament passed 24 bills, including an organic law regarding the appointment of high-
ranking officials.
The new laws deal with justice, the basic guarantees accorded to servicemen within the royal army, the financial and commercial sectors, political, economic and social reforms, and improved moral standards in public life.
Other bills described as urgent were drafted on the agriculture and maritime fishery sectors.
Abdelatif Ouahbi, who chairs the parliamentary group of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), called it a feeble session, explaining that, with exception of the laws on fundamental guarantees granted to servicemen and appointments to high office, the government has not brought forward organic laws to enable the provisions to implement a new constitution.
However, Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane has maintained a reassuring and confident tone, saying that “this session has given a new impetus to the process of change in the way our institutions work, to meet expectations in society. The Chamber of Representatives is now a real actor in the political process upon which the country has embarked.”
