Off the wire
Feature: Damascus residents enjoy chocolate feast to welcome New Year  • Kenyan leader mourns death of musicians in road accident  • Interview: Manufacturing to provide main impetus in British economic growth  • Albania launches a master plan to develop mountainous tourism  • France's Macron tells Netanyahu "to give chance" to peace  • Kenya's opposition defers swearing-in of leaders  • Rwanda concludes national Kung Fu championships  • Chinese, Algerian presidents hail successful launch of communications satellite  • Multiple gene therapy trials report high remission rates for certain lymphoma patients  • 2nd LD Writethru: Egypt's Sisi invites Abbas for talks to tackle Jerusalem crisis  
You are here:  

Roundup: Morocco's ruling party elects current PM as new leader

Xinhua,December 11, 2017 Adjust font size:

RABAT, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Morocco's ruling Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) elected on Sunday Saadeddine El Othmani as a secretary general of the party.

El Othmani, Morocco's current Prime Minister and the former No. 2 figure in the party, was elected after receiving 1,006 votes out of 1,943, nearly 52 percent of the votes.

His rival, Driss Azami El Idrissi, the leader of the party's parliamentary group, got 912 votes. 25 delegates abstained.

A career psychiatrist, 61-year-old El-Othmani was PJD's secretary general from 2004 until 2008. He also served as foreign minister from January 2012 to October 2013.

In a speech after his election at the end of its PJD's 8th national congress, El Othmani congratulated the party for the success of its congress despite the crisis it had gone through in the past few months.

He stressed the need for safeguarding the unity of the party, noting that PJD decides to open an internal dialogue to design a new and shared platform of the party.

El Othmani said his government will follow PJD's reformist agenda. Enditem