Rabat – The Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) said Wednesday that what happened at a polling station in Tangier was a “carefully orchestrated scenario.”
Earlier today, the Prosecutor General at the Tangier Court of Appeal announced the opening of a judicial investigation into a video circulated on social media showing a glass ballot box containing white envelopes.
Security services responded to the situation by arresting a person at a polling station in Tangier on suspicion of possessing “illegal electoral papers.”
The Justice and Development Party (PJD) complained about electoral irregularities in a polling station in Tangier and others in several districts.
The party said its central committee “has also been informed of reports that official ballot papers were found outside polling stations and were allegedly intended to be used in favor of a candidate from the ‘Tractor’ Party in Tangier,” referring to PAM.
For PJD, “these practices constitute a serious infringement of the integrity of the elections in the district concerned, requiring urgent intervention by the relevant authorities and the public prosecutor’s office.”
PAM responded to the situation, stating that what was attributed to the party is an “attempt to target the party” and disrupt the electoral process, describing the incident as part of what it called a “political conspiracy.”
The party said its leadership announced its categorical rejection of this “conspiracy, accusing “certain parties who have been unsettled by the party’s strong presence and citizens’ growing confidence in its program”
“The political and organizational concerns of the party’s opponents over the position and results attributed to the party have pushed these parties to adopt low-level methods aimed at tarnishing the image of the party and its activists, as well as unethical preemptive actions intended to influence the democratic process,” PAM added in its statement, without explicitly naming those it accuses.
It concluded the statement by expressing its unconditional support for an investigation to establish all the circumstances surrounding the incident and uncover “those behind this scheme to promote false and malicious claims,” reiterating confidence in state institutions and its commitment to the laws governing the electoral process.
The vote, which will determine the members of the new government and parties’ seats at the House of Representatives, will end at 7 p.m. today, with voter turnout estimated at 28.05% % as of 5 p.m.
