BRADENTON HERALD: Election results for the first 50 seats in Morocco's parliament announced by the state news agency early Saturday suggest a moderate Islamist party is taking 40 percent of the vote.
With just a fraction of the results for the 395-seat Parliament reported, the opposition Justice and Development Party looks to have dramatically increased its share.
Party Secretary General Abdelilah Benkirane said late Friday that by its own estimates, his party had come in first.
According to the new constitution, the party with the most seats gets first crack at forming a new government, so if the trend continues, the Islamists must find coalition partners willing to work with them.
In recent years Morocco's Islamists have cultivated an image as honest outsiders battling corruption and seeking to improve services, rather than focusing on moral issues such as the women's headscarf.
Morocco, a close U.S. ally and popular European tourist destination suffers from high unemployment and widespread poverty.
If the Islamists do end up winning the most seats, that would appear to confirm a trend of victories by Islamist parties in elections prompted by the Arab Spring, following Ennahda's win last month in Tunisia. Read on and comment » | PAUL SCHEMM, Associated Press | Saturday, November 26, 2011
LE MONDE: Les islamistes revendiquent la victoire électorale au Maroc » | Isabelle Mandraud, envoyée spéciale au Maroc | samedi 26 novembre 2011
