Rabat - Justice and Development Party (PJD) leader Abdarelilah Benkirane has said that the party’s next convention will “most likely” be held in December.
Rabat – Justice and Development Party (PJD) leader Abdarelilah Benkirane has said that the party’s next convention will “most likely” be held in December.
Benkirane said on Thursday night following a meeting of the PJD Secretariat General, the party’s executive body, that December was the monthagreed upon during the meeting.
The next convention will see the election of a new leader of the party. Benkirane, currently serving his second term asPJD Secretary General since 2008, cannot run for a third mandate unless internal laws of the party are changed.
The possibility of him making a bid for a third mandate has triggered widespread speculation among observers of Moroccan politics.
The charismatic Islamist leader led PJD to three major wins in Moroccan parliamentary and municipal elections in 2011, 2015, and 2016.
However, when King Mohammed VI replaced him with former party leader SaadEddine El Othmani as head of government after Benkirane failed to form a coalition, divisions started to grow within the party.
El Othmani’s government,made up of a loose coalition of six parties, has been criticized by the public for its heavy-handed management of the crisis in Al Hoceima and the arrest and prosecution of dozens of protesters.
Several PJD members believe the unpopular government management of the crisis will cost the party its credibility.
