By Adel Iqleiy, IOL Morocco Correspondent

RABAT, Sept 28 (IslamOnline) - The Justice and Development Party (PJD) won 44 seats in the Moroccan legislative elections held Friday, September 27, 30 seats more than the party had in the 325-member outgoing parliament.

The elections were marred due to charges from the opposition and moderate turnout by voters.

Interviewed by IslamOnline, Rashied el-Madour, a prominent House of Representatives and PJD member, attributed the moderate turnout to several reasons, the list of candidates is new to Moroccans, who, according to him, seem uninterested, and vote buyers.

Analysts say a low rate indicates a rejection by Moroccans of the electoral process in a country where the constitution vests true power in the hands of the monarch.

On the supervision of the election process, Mandour praised the supervisors as having been neutral. The real problem was the behaviors of some of the candidates who tried to rig the election process, he said, adding that violations were reported to the authorities.

The turnout rate in some northern and central provinces did not exceed 30 percent, but in the southern city of Al Oyoun the rate went up to 44 percent, a rate that Tag el-Dine el-Husseini, International Relations professor at Mohammad IV University, signaled as an indication that the southern provinces are part and parcel of the Moroccan soil.

According to observers, youths turnout on the ballots were weak with the percentage of those who registered their names in the electoral lists not exceeding 27 percent. This, observers argue, indicates an aggravated employment crisis as university graduates were not given practical promises.

Despite the government's efforts to improve the participation of Moroccan women in the political life through allocating 10 percent of the parliamentary seats to them, the percentage of women vying in the legislative elections varied from one province to another. In Casablanca, the women/men candidacy ratio was 8 to 92 percent and it went even lower in small cities registering 1 to 99 percent, for example, in el-Hassima.

On Friday, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) said that women representation in parliaments worldwide was only 14.7 percent. Only in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland does the percentage of women representation hit 40 percent rate, according to the latest IPU statistics issued on September 20, 2002.

The position of Independence Party registered several violations in a number of constituencies and is currently wording a report to be issued later.

According to a statement by the Socialist Democratic Party, Mohammad el-Farid, a party member, was assassinated by whom the statement branded as "a gang affiliated to those with poisoned daggers." Returning home at 8:00 p.m. Thursday September 26, an armed gang stopped el-Farid and two of them stabbed him, said the statement.

The party asserted it would continue investigating the murder until culprits are brought to justice. The party also underlined that the gang was forcing citizens to vote for their party.

According to media circles in the constituency of Teflit-ElRomani, the election process was marked by high tension with the security forces standing helpless before violence between opposing candidates. The election process was stopped in seven ballot-casting stations in the area after intervention by the interior ministry representative.

The parties that boycotted the elections had anticipated low turnout at the ballot-casting stations. The parties attributed the boycotting of the elections to the public's aspiration for dramatic reforms harmonious with the constitution, power distribution and decentralization.