National Rally for Independents leads Moroccan municipal elections

RABAT, Morocco (AA) - The National Rally for Independents topped the results of the Morocco's municipal and regional elections, the Interior Ministry announced on Friday.

In a statement, the ministry said the official preliminary results of the municipal and regional elections held on Wednesday, along with the parliamentary polls, showed that the liberal National Rally for Independents gained a total of 9,995 seats.

The Authenticity and Modernity Party, another liberal party, came second with 6,210 seats, the opposition Istiqlal Party gained 5,600 seats and the leftist Socialist Union of Popular Forces won 2,415 seats, the statement further said.

It also read that the right-wing People’s Movement and the Constitutional Union Party secured 2,253 and 1,626 seats, respectively, while the leftist Party of Progress and Socialism gained 1,532 seats.

The statement added that the Islamist Justice and Development Party - which led the outgoing coalition government - only gained 777 seats, while the other 1,525 seats were taken by other parties.

On Wednesday, Moroccans cast their votes in the country’s parliamentary and municipal elections.

The parliamentary elections brought also National Rally for Independents to the top with 102 seats of the 395-member parliament while the Justice and Development Party, which was the leading party in the 2016 polls, only got 13 seats, marking a big retreat in its popularity.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar