Moroccan authorities on Monday placed the mayor of Tangier, Mounir Limouri, in police custody over suspected electoral fraud in the recent parliamentary elections, a judicial source told AFP. Five other people, including two officials who were overseeing polling stations in Tangier, were being held in pre-trial detention on electoral fraud accusations, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Tangier mayor placed in police custody in Morocco election fraud inquiry
Moroccan authorities on Monday placed the mayor of Tangier, Mounir Limouri, in police custody over suspected electoral fraud in the recent parliamentary elections, a judicial source told AFP. Five other people, including two officials who were overseeing polling stations in Tangier, were being held in pre-trial detention on electoral fraud accusations, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Limouri was placed in police custody by order of the public prosecutor's office as part of the investigation into suspected electoral fraud, the judicial source said.
The interior ministry said a sweeping investigation into reports of ballot fraud was ongoing. Morocco's ruling coalition dominated the parliamentary election last week, but the poll was marked by the lowest turnout in two decades and by reports of ballot fraud in Tangier.
Media reports said Limouri was detained upon arrival at Tangier airport from Spain, following a warrant issued against him for the alleged tampering of ballots in his constituency. One polling station official in the northern city was arrested the day of the vote, after he was allegedly found with documents meant for ballot tampering, according to media reports.
Limouri, a member of the center-right Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), which won the election, told the news website Le360 over the weekend that he "had no connection" with the incident. The PAM won 97 of 395 seats in the House of Representatives, while the National Rally of Independents (RNI), which heads the outgoing coalition, came in second with 66 seats.
Morocco is set to appoint its next prime minister from the PAM. Fouzi Lekjaa, who serves as budget minister and is better known as chief of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, is likely to be tapped as premier, while Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, the PAM's national coordinator, who serves as current territorial planning minister and mayor of Marrakech, could also be in line to become Morocco's first woman prime minister.
- The source does not state a calendar date for the detentions, saying only that they occurred on Monday.
- The source does not name the five other people reported to be in pre-trial detention, beyond identifying two of them as polling station officials in Tangier.
- The source does not state what charges, if any, have been filed against Limouri or the others, nor whether any of them has appeared before a judge.
- The source does not state the turnout figure behind its description of the lowest turnout in two decades.
- The source does not identify the media outlets that reported Limouri's detention at Tangier airport and the arrest of a polling station official, and attributes those accounts to media reports rather than to named authorities.
- The source also does not state the specific date of the warrant or the airport arrival, and its account of the airport detention and of the documents allegedly found on the polling station official is attributed to media reports rather than to official statements.
- The source does not state whether the Authenticity and Modernity Party or the interior ministry has commented on Limouri's detention or on the other detentions.
- The source does not state when the next prime minister is to be appointed or that any decision on the post has been made.
Read the original at Arab News