Legislative elections in Morocco

[farid_h]

I'm wondering how many Moroccans abroad were aware of the fact that we could have registered to vote in the next legislative elections September 7th, 2007. According to the official website of the interior ministry dedicated to these elections, http://www.elections.gov.ma/index.aspx (in Arabic and French), the time window to register was between April 5th and May 4th. If you didn't register by then, you've forfeited your right to vote.

I missed this time window because I never received any notification from the Moroccan Consulate or Embassy; neither in the US nor in Germany (I'm living in both countries). When I finally learned about it (here on bladi, no less), the countdown was already down to a couple of days -- way too late to get to a Consulate or Embassy on time (I was travelling). It's not really such a big deal anyway (and we all know why, don't we?), but I still feel slightly upset. Being denied the right to vote on such a stupid technicality... I don't know if I should cry or laugh!

How about you? Anyone here in the same predicament? To those who were able to register: have you got a letter from our Embassy or Consulate? How did you learn about this extremely tiny time window?

[Samurai007]

Envoyé par farid_h I'm wondering how many Moroccans abroad were aware of the fact that we could have registered to vote in the next legislative elections September 7th, 2007. According to the official website of the interior ministry dedicated to these elections, http://www.elections.gov.ma/index.aspx (in Arabic and French), the time window to register was between April 5th and May 4th. If you didn't register by then, you've forfeited your right to vote. I missed this time window because I never received any notification from the Moroccan Consulate or Embassy; neither in the US nor in Germany (I'm living in both countries). When I finally learned about it (here on bladi, no less), the countdown was already down to a couple of days -- way too late to get to a Consulate or Embassy on time (I was travelling). It's not really such a big deal anyway (and we all know why, don't we?), but I still feel slightly upset. Being denied the right to vote on such a stupid technicality... I don't know if I should cry or laugh! How about you? Anyone here in the same predicament? To those who were able to register: have you got a letter from our Embassy or Consulate? How did you learn about this extremely tiny time window?

what's the point of voting knowing that the results are already fixed.
Let's not lie to ourselves, Morocco is not a democracy, i prefer to call our political system, hypocritic democracy..
who cares who runs for office, who cares who wins or loses...?
who cares?
in a system like ours, it's democracy for the super rich and the middle finger for the rest of us.
for them we were born to work, eat, sleep, serve the elite and shut the hell up!!!
screw them, i wouldn't vote for any party or any condidat even if i was living in Morocco.
why help a thief steal more than he already did?
Morocco is not a democracy, they can pretend all they want.

[farid_h]

Envoyé par Samurai007 what's the point of voting knowing that the results are already fixed.

That was exactly my first reaction after having realized that I've missed this time window. My second one was, of course, that this was a silly way to react; much like a late cat which despises those mice she didn't catch while she was sleeping...

But seriously, the situation in Morocco is much more complicated nowadays than to the old times when Basri was still minister of the interior. Maybe you're right: all parties there are just caring for the well-being of their own tiny elites, but ain't that similar to the situation elsewhere in the world?

Isn't it all about choosing the lesser of evils? That is, if we still had a chance to choose, which we don't. Oh well, the world keeps on moving anyway, whomever our present overlords happen to be.

[crazylover]

Right on Samurai007 - I couldn't agree more..

Farid_h - who said it's more complicated nowadays? I just came back from Morocco.. it's the same thing over and over.. except brainwashing moroccans (as usual) with nonsense feeding them all nonsense like we're making money, we're becoming more developed etc.. In reality, Morocco still can't balance out its liabilities vs. total revenue.. better yet, Morocco still depends on donations, longterm loans, and MRE money to help pay its expenses..

You want more, I heard, straight from the horse's mouth, many officials in morocco saying don't believe the media, nothing's changed, so don't be so pumped over nothing. Moreover, I tried to be the "wistleblower" re illegal theft and stuff in Morocco.. I'm on the phone with the Ministry (ie, the highest authority in Morocco), they tried to feed me the same thing saying if we have the will for a change we can make it to change to a "better morocco", I said: "ok, here is the first step, I'm reporting what I have witnessed to you, now what do you need from me in order to act on it? or maybe pass it over to Nezha Chekrouni" answer was - she's out of the office, call back tomorrow.. Here I am, calling back from the states everyday for 3 months, just to help "change for a better morocco" with no personal benefit to me whatsoever, except paying the international calls everyday for 3 months to Morocco out of my own pocket with no results (and trust me it is quite a heavy phonebill). They still tell me she's not available and call back tomorrow, and transfer to other people who could deal with it who say the exact same for 3 months..

What does that tell you exactly? to me it means they know "more than anyone else" that what they're saying in the media is not true, they know that they won't correct anything or change anything, they just keep telling people they're changing as part of "brainwash" strategy.. when you put it to test and expect them to act on something, then you see the real morocco.

Sorry I said a lot, but yeah farid_h, it's not about choosing the lesser of 2 evils, because here things are different. Even if parties are evil, they still do what they need to meet their commitment to their people (ie, if some law is making the life of americans harder, it gets changed, if federal taxes are too much, they get reduced, if morocco abuses the right of americans, these parties jump in to protect them). in Morocco, no party would ever think of "moroccans", they still think of moroccan people as a low-class citizens, as slaves that deserve no rights for anything...

Sorry for being too harsh, but I'm speaking nothing but the truth.. this is what I've seen and witnessed.. I've tried to help change to the better for Morocco, the result: paying over $2,000 on phone bills, and yet they did not do anything to resolve their issue (btw, the problem was officials requesting monetary payments from people and threatening them to force them to pay them bribery).

[cuty-pie]

Envoyé par Samurai007 what's the point of voting knowing that the results are already fixed. Let's not lie to ourselves, Morocco is not a democracy, i prefer to call our political system, hypocritic democracy.. who cares who runs for office, who cares who wins or loses...? who cares? in a system like ours, it's democracy for the super rich and the middle finger for the rest of us. for them we were born to work, eat, sleep, serve the elite and shut the hell up!!! screw them, i wouldn't vote for any party or any condidat even if i was living in Morocco. why help a thief steal more than he already did? Morocco is not a democracy, they can pretend all they want.

:You crack me up


I have nothing to add....you said it all