Morocco votes in parliamentary election amid youth discontent

Moroccans headed to the polls on Wednesday to elect a new parliament, with voters focused on the cost of living, employment and inequality amid widespread distrust of political parties.

Polling stations opened at 8 am (0800 GMT) and were set to close at 7 pm, with preliminary results to be announced overnight.

Nearly 16 million Moroccans have registered to elect 395 members of the House of Representatives.

At a polling station at a school in the centre of the capital Rabat, a dozen people turned up to cast their ballot as soon as it opened.

"I came to vote in the hope that the situation will change for the better," said a 42-year-old who wished to remain anonymous.

Turnout, especially among the youth, will be a key test of the election, with only a slim four percent of registered voters aged 18 to 24.

Morocco's prime minister is appointed by the king from the party that wins the most seats. The premier then forms a government for a five-year term, but the monarch retains control of major policy decisions.

Rising unemployment, higher prices, inequality and distrust of politicians are at the heart of the election campaign.

The vote comes less than two months after a mass rush of mainly young Moroccan migrants into the neighbouring Spanish enclave of Ceuta.

The incident, which heightened tensions between Rabat and Madrid, has not been a central campaign issue, but parties have focused on promises to improve quality of life in Morocco.

- Salary increases -

Opinion polls are banned under Morocco's electoral law, but observers put the National Rally of Independents (RNI) -- currently heading the governing coalition -- among the favourites.

Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch led his party's campaign, although he has stepped down as head of the RNI, which will exclude him from heading the next government if his party wins the most seats.

Akhannouch has defended his government's record -- including expanding social security coverage -- and promised the RNI will do more if re-elected.

"We have done quite important work within the government," he said at a recent rally.

"We carried out reforms in education and health, we increased salaries... we were there when (Moroccans) needed us."

The wealthy businessman has nevertheless faced repeated accusations of conflicts of interest involving his company Afriquia, Morocco's leading fuel distributor.

Akhannouch has also faced widespread calls for his resignation from a youth-led protest movement demanding better health and education services.

The RNI's main rival is the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM). The two centre-right parties are ideologically close and were founded by figures with ties to the royal palace.

- 'Added value' -

The PAM has recruited a popular figure, Budget Minister Fouzi Lekjaa, better known for his role as head of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation.

"We want to make young people a force capable of bringing added value rather than being left behind," Lekjaa recently said, pledging higher wages and better purchasing power.

But the PAM has no clear leader, and its other prominent figure is Fatima Ezzahra Mansouri, currently the minister for territorial planning and mayor of Marrakesh, who could become the country's first woman premier.

The PAM has also been hit by a corruption scandal. In June, a court sentenced two of its senior figures to 10 and 12 years in prison respectively in a major drug-trafficking case dubbed the "Escobar of the Sahara".

Also in contention is Istiqlal, a right-wing party led by equipment minister Nizar Baraka, with a campaign focused on social issues.

And the Islamist opposition's Justice and Development Party has centred its campaign on fighting corruption.

The conservative party, led by former prime minister Abdelilah Benkirane, has also campaigned against inheritance equality and the decriminalisation of extramarital consensual sexual relations.