Hello friends I have been reading you from time to time but now simply have to ask and perhaps you could answer me. I want to go and spend 3 months in Fez (i will mostly be taking in the place and reading books which I will bring along). Tell me, would it be hard to find an apartment or a room in the Medina which is nice -- pretty, quiet, friendly -- but not outrageously expensive (not $60 a night or some such thing) -- for a 3 month rental? Would the restaurant food be good? Would the air be reasonably clean? (I live in a city in Thailand which is starting to have pollution problems). Finally, would Sept-Nov be a good time to be there? Would Sept still be hot? Would Nov already be cold? Warm regards to you all Gawain
Monday, August 27, 2007
Anonymous said...
Hello!
I've read your post about the election campaign - the one in Fez is supposed to be quite rough...
A blogging friend of mine has some time ago launched a blog where he publishes scans from electoral campaigns from around the world - he's covered Belgium, France, Turkey and Portugal so far, and has some posts about Morocco. My request is this: if you come across electoral fliers in Fez, is there any possiblity for you to scan them and mail them to me? I've got in scans from Rabat, Kenitra and Casablanca but the rest of the country is out of bonds for me! Thanks for the effort, if you find enough time to contribute!
My mail is cetericenseo at hotmail dot com .
Cheers
Sunday, September 02, 2007
[Image]Morocco's parliamentary race kicked off today with the start of the two-week-long official election campaign period, marked by a flurry of rallies big and small.
[Image] In Fez ,we caught up with one small rally, but, as a local policeman commented "These are mainly young men paid to hand out pamphlets. They wouldn't have a political thought in their heads."
A local businessman, who asked not to be named, claimed that poor young men were enlisted to participate and the going rate was one hundred dirhams per day. Marchers who we spoke to denied they were being paid. They also pointed out that they were not representing a political party but were, in fact, urging people to vote.
This may be a difficult task as the scepticism amongst young Moroccans is very strong. Distrust of politicians is widespread and has little to do with political factions. As one disaffected woman said, "They are all liars and promises never become real."
[Image] More than 30 parties are expected to take part in the elections, but if the early polls are to be believed, the opposition Justice and Development Party, or PJD, appear to have an early lead. The party, which was formed from various small islamist groups back in 1998, rose to prominence in the last parliamentary elections in 2002, winning 42 seats in the outgoing lower house.
A recent survey by the CSA and LMS polling agencies suggests Justice and Development would take 19 percent of the vote, compared to 15 percent for the establishment Istiqlal, or Independence, party, and 14 percent for the center-left Socialist Union of Popular Forces, or USFP, which together dominate the current governing coalition.
The poll of 1,200 people, which appeared Friday in the Almassae newspaper, had a margin of error between 1.7-2.8 percent.
According to the International Herald Tribune, 69 percent of those surveyed said they planned to vote. However, as we have reported earlier, in the 2002 race, only 50 percent of registered voters cast their ballots and of those, some 17 percent were blank protest votes. The maths is not encouraging.
[Image] The IHT states that a dozen observers from the Washington D.C. based National Democratic Institute will be on hand for the upcoming vote.
Morocco's secularist King Mohamed VI, who names the government and still wields ultimate power in the country, has spoken out on the need for electoral transparency and to fight against vote-buying — which overshadowed the 2002 race and has flared up before September's vote.
Over the past few weeks, Moroccan authorities have announced they were bringing charges against dozens of people accused of vote buying and other violations of the electoral code.
2 Comments
Close this window Jump to comment formHello friends
I have been reading you from time to time but now simply have to ask and perhaps you could answer me. I want to go and spend 3 months in Fez (i will mostly be taking in the place and reading books which I will bring along). Tell me, would it be hard to find an apartment or a room in the Medina which is nice -- pretty, quiet, friendly -- but not outrageously expensive (not $60 a night or some such thing) -- for a 3 month rental? Would the restaurant food be good? Would the air be reasonably clean? (I live in a city in Thailand which is starting to have pollution problems). Finally, would Sept-Nov be a good time to be there? Would Sept still be hot? Would Nov already be cold?
Warm regards to you all
Gawain
Monday, August 27, 2007
Hello!
I've read your post about the election campaign - the one in Fez is supposed to be quite rough...
A blogging friend of mine has some time ago launched a blog where he publishes scans from electoral campaigns from around the world - he's covered Belgium, France, Turkey and Portugal so far, and has some posts about Morocco. My request is this: if you come across electoral fliers in Fez, is there any possiblity for you to scan them and mail them to me? I've got in scans from Rabat, Kenitra and Casablanca but the rest of the country is out of bonds for me! Thanks for the effort, if you find enough time to contribute!
My mail is cetericenseo at hotmail dot com .
Cheers
Sunday, September 02, 2007