CASABLANCA – Several thousand people marched through Morocco’s biggest city at the weekend to protest that constitutional reforms unveiled last week by King Mohammed have not gone far enough.
After some of the biggest protests in decades – inspired in part by the “Arab Spring” uprisings – the monarch announced on Friday that he would devolve some of his powers to parliament and the government and put the reforms to a referendum on July 1st.
Under the changes, the king would retain his hold on security, the army and the religious sphere. That disappointed some opponents who had wanted to see the monarch hand over all his executive powers to elected officials.
“We are here to reject the proposed constitution,” said Aziz Yaakoubi, one of the organisers of Sunday’s protest in Casablanca, Morocco’s commercial capital.
“It keeps all the powers in the hands of the king. He refused to listen to the street.”
Protesters marched through Casablanca’s working class Derb Sultan district carrying placards that read: “No to a constitution made for slaves!” and “No to a constitution of dictatorship!”.
About 10,000 people took part in the protest, while about 500 pro-monarchy activists gathered for a nearby counter-demonstration.
A government official, who did not want to be identified, said 2,500 people took part in the opposition protest and that most of them were members of a banned Islamist group. The official also said the pro-monarchy counter-protest was attended by 70,000 people.
Most Moroccans revere the monarch and months of protests demanding he give up his executive powers have failed to win the sort of popular support that toppled leaders earlier this year in Tunisia and Egypt.
The moves by King Mohammed, who heads the Arab world’s longest-serving dynasty, are being closely monitored by Gulf Arab monarchies which are also facing calls for reform.
The July referendum is likely to endorse the king’s reforms. Some people at Sunday’s protest, organised by the February 20th opposition movement, called for a boycott of the vote.
As well as the Casablanca protests, there were demonstrations in other cities including Tangier and Rabat on Sunday. – (Reuters)