Moroccans vote in regional, municipal elections in test for governing coalition

Voters started Friday morning to cast their ballots in Morocco's regional and municipal elections, seen as a public referendum on the governing coalition.

The polling stations opened at 8 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) and will close at 7 p.m. (1800 GMT). The initial voting results are expected to come out late Friday night.

Nearly 30 parties are competing for 31,503 local council seats and 678 regional council posts.

As many as 14.5 million Moroccans are eligible to cast their ballots in the polls.

A total of 4,000 observers, including 76 international organizations, have been accredited to oversee the elections.

Many analysts see the elections as a real testing ground for the governing coalition and a practice run for the 2016 parliamentary polls.

Protests in 2011 led to a new constitution and a parliamentary vote was held in late that year, which brought Abdelilah Benkirane's Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) to power.

The governing coalition groups four political parties, namely the PJD, National Rally of Independents (RNI), Popular Movement (PM) and Progress and Socialism Party (PPS).

During their electoral campaigns, political parties have confirmed the decisive nature of the polls in terms of leading the new government in 2016.

After Morocco successfully coped with the challenges of instability following the 2011 political turmoil across the Arab world, the regional and municipal elections may position not only as test for the governing coalition's homogeneity or popularity, but more importantly a test for the public will to support the reforms initiated by the 2011 constitution. Endit