Corruption brings down 90 elected representatives in 64 local councils.

Agadir24

Corruption has brought down 90 elected representatives in territorial councils, in 64 territorial councils under the jurisdiction of 35 prefectures and provinces, due to legal violations recorded against them based on reports from the General Inspectorate of Territorial Administration under the Ministry of the Interior, reports from regional accounting councils, and complaints from associations for the protection of public money.

On September 12, the Ministry of Interior will hold partial elections to fill 90 vacant seats in 64 local authorities under the jurisdiction of 35 prefectures and provinces, based on Organic Law No. 59.11, relating to the election of members of local authority councils.

The seats of the territorial councils in which the partial elections will be held concern all regions of Morocco, which requires political parties to be honest in choosing their candidates, based on integrity in behavior, clean hands, good morals, competence in work, and good management.

Al Sabah reported that there has been a shift in the speed of referring files and adjudicating them by the judiciary, thanks to the independence of the judiciary and the presidency of the Public Prosecution from the Ministry of Justice, regardless of the weight of the person being prosecuted, even if he was a former minister or a current parliamentarian, which means applying the constitutional principle of “linking responsibility to accountability” and applying the separation of powers, unlike before when the Ministry of Justice had “political cover” that affected, in one way or another, the normal course of some files.

Local elected officials are being prosecuted on charges of corruption, manipulation of public contracts, embezzlement and looting of public funds, converting public projects into private projects, forgery of documents, breach of trust, and absence from local council sessions for some, including a former secretary-general of a party, the same source reports.

The Ministry of Interior, the judges of the regional accounting councils, and the associations for the protection of public funds referred files to the financial crimes chambers and the administrative courts, which dropped 90 local seats, including 34 parliamentarians, 10 of whom were stripped of their membership in the House of Representatives by the Constitutional Court, and one of their membership in the House of Councillors. The list is long, and others fled the country to avoid any legal prosecution, including those elected to the Fez City Council.