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Rabat – Abdelwahed Radi, an octogenarian, Moroccan politician, has become the oldest figure inside Morocco’s parliament after he spent 53 years dedicating his life in parliament.
In last Friday’s legislative elections, Radi was re-elected for the tenth consecutive time. He won a parliamentarian seat out of a total of 20 for the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP) in Sidi Slimane, about 100 km northeast of Rabat.
Radi is a Professor of Social Psychology at Mohammed V University in Rabat, and was born in 1935, in Sale, near Rabat. He embarked on his political journey at the age of 24 by contributing to USFP’s founding in 1959, after Mehdi Ben Barka, Abdellah Ibrahim and Abderrahim Bouabid dissented from the Istiqlal Party (Independence Party).
Radi was also one of the founders of the leading associations and unions in the mid-20th century, including the National Union of Students (UNEM) and the Popular Childhood Movement.
In 1958, while Radi was pursuing his higher studies in France, he was elected as the president of the Federal National Union of Moroccan Students in France.
After the adoption of Morocco’s first constitution in 1963, Radi was elected to be the youngest MP Radi managed to keep his seat in parliament since 1963.
In 1983, Radi was appointed Minister of Cooperation by the late King Hasssan II, and Minister of Justice by King Mohammed VI in 2007 as well. Radi was also appointed as the President of the House of Representatives in 1997, 2002 and 2010.
