Marrakech – The Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) froze the membership of Mounir Laymouri, mayor of Tangier, across all of the party’s structures on Friday, tying the measure to the ballot paper case now before the courts.
The party’s National Arbitration and Ethics Commission announced the decision in a statement, explaining that it acted on a referral from PAM’s political bureau over acts attributed to Laymouri. He serves as the party’s regional secretary for Tangier-Assilah prefecture and as president of the Tangier communal council.
The commission issued its ruling in disciplinary file number 2.26, applying Article 149 of the party’s statutes. It framed the suspension as a disciplinary step independent of the criminal procedure underway.
The statement tied the measure to events during the September 23 vote in the Tangier-Assilah electoral district, which prompted judicial authorities to open an investigation.
The commission cited its respect for judicial independence and the presumption of innocence, noting that criminal responsibility is established only through a final, binding court decision carrying the force of res judicata.
The commission did not accuse Laymouri of committing the acts under investigation. It referred only to “acts attributed” to him, keeping the disciplinary track separate from any finding of guilt.
The party’s move followed Laymouri’s transfer to custody. A Royal Gendarmerie vehicle left the Tangier court of appeal for the local prison in Assilah, carrying the mayor and an accountant from his company, after the investigating judge ordered both into preventive detention.
Laymouri had been arrested on Monday on his return from Spain, stopped at Tangier Ibn Battouta airport after a flight from Malaga under a national search warrant. He spent roughly 72 hours in police custody before his deferral.
The case began on election day, September 23, when a bag holding electoral documents was found near the polling station at Al Qods school in the Casabarata neighborhood. A video of a man’s arrest with the bag circulated online and fueled controversy over the vote in the constituency.
The King’s prosecutor at the Tangier court of first instance opened an investigation at once. Inquiries led to five suspects, among them two polling station presidents and their two deputies.
On September 26, the prosecution laid out the suspected scheme. A polling station vice-president allegedly pulled a batch of ballots from inside his office, aided by the station president, hid them in the bag, carried them out of the school, then worked to return them to two polling stations. Investigators also found that the ink on the seized ballots differed from the ink used inside the stations.
Thursday’s developments brought two more arrests, raising the total to seven. The prosecutor identified the pair as Laymouri and his accountant.
According to preliminary findings, the accountant marked the PAM symbol on ballots at the request of his employer, Laymouri, who was in a hotel apartment with two other men carrying two bags of ballots. The four allegedly marked the ballots together.
Investigators recovered hotel surveillance footage that had been deliberately erased, which placed Laymouri at the scene with his accountant and others. Phone analysis revealed calls he made to detained suspects before and on election day. The prosecution has requested a full judicial inquiry for attacking voting operations and taking part in falsification.
In a statement on election day, PAM dismissed the Tangier allegations as a “malicious and fabricated campaign” and a “political plot” aimed at damaging its image.
