Constitution of Morocco

Morocco

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Morocco

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The first Constitution of Morocco was adopted in 1962, 6 years after the country regained independence. Since this event, the king, Mohamed V worked for the establishment of political and constitutional institutions. This was originally the creation of the National Advisory Council and, on November 15, 1959, the enactment of the Dahir, legislation text governing public freedoms and freedom of expression. Then,in 1960, the Constitutional Council was created and the Draft of the first Constitution was proporsed on November 18, 1962, and ratified by referendum on December 7, 1962 and promulgated one week later, on December 14.

A referendum on constitutional reforms was held in Morocco on 1 July 2011. It was called in response to the protests that took place earlier in the year demanding democratic reforms. A commission was to draft proposals by June 2011.^[1] A draft released on 17 June foresaw the following changes:^[2][3][4]

• forcing the King to name a Prime Minister from the largest party in Parliament;
• handing a number of rights from the monarch to the PM, including dissolution of parliament;
• allowing parliament to grant amnesty, previously a privilege of the monarch;
• making Berber an official language alongside Arabic

The changes were reportedly approved by 98.49% of voters.^[5] Despite protest movements calling for a boycott of the referendum, government officials claimed turnout was 72.65%.^[5][6]

Following the referendum, early parliamentary elections will be held on 7 October 2011.

Results of 2011 referendum

Moroccan constitutional referendum, 2011[7]
Choice	Votes	Percentage
Yes	9,653,492	98.50%
No	146,718	1.50%
Valid votes	9,800,210	99.17%
Invalid or blank votes	81,712	0.83%
Total votes	9,881,922	100.00%
Voter turnout	73.46%
Electorate	13,451,404

See also

• Moroccan constitutional referendum, 1962
• Moroccan constitutional referendum, 2011

References

1. ^ Morocco to vote on new constitution AFP, 9 March 2011
2. ^ König will Teil seiner Macht abgeben Der Standard, 18 June 2011 (German)
3. ^ Moroccan Islamists 'could reject constitution' AFP, 13 June 2011
4. ^ Morocco king to lose some powers, remain key figure Vancouver Sun, 17 June 2011
5. ^ ^{a b} Morocco approves King Mohammed's constitutional reforms BBC, 2 July 2011
6. ^ http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90855/7427445.html
7. ^ http://www.moroccoboard.com/news/5339-morocco-refrerendum-results

External links

• Full text of the 1996-2011 Constitution Here (French)
• Full text of the 2011 Constitution (French) as published in the Bulletin Officiel