RABAT // In polling stations across Morocco today, Moroccans will be asked to say yes or no to a proposed new constitution. The key question, however, is how many will turn up to vote.
King Mohammed VI says the proposed constitution strengthens democracy, while opponents say that its reforms are cosmetic. The youth-driven February 20 protest movement has called for a boycott of the referendum.
Supporters of the proposed constitution are hoping for high voter turnout to underpin the document’s widely expected approval in today’s poll. A low turnout could offer opponents an opening to push for deeper change.
Foreign observers, meanwhile, will be watching to see whether King Mohammed, who initiated the new constitution, will outpace protests that have swept across the Arab world this year.
“The king of Morocco has gone farther than any Arab leader in getting ahead of the avalanche,” said Marina Ottaway, the head of the Middle East programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington-based think tank.
A solid victory, she said, could inspire a similar initiative in Jordan, which like Morocco, is a pro-western Sunni monarchy swept up in the region’s protests.
Kings of Morocco and Jordan