Morocco’s reformed constitution will make officials more accountable and will give the government greater powers, but King Mohammed will remain a key power-broker in the security, military and religious fields, according to a draft. After facing the biggest anti-establishment protests in decades, King Mohammed in March ordered a hand-picked committee to conduct consultations with political parties, trade unions and civil society groups on constitutional reform with a brief to trim the monarch’s political powers and make the judiciary independent.
In the final draft of the reformed constitution, King Mohammed will keep exclusive control over military and religious fields and pick a prime minister from the party that wins parliamentary elections. It allows the king to delegate the task of chairing ministers’ council meetings to the prime minister on a previously agreed agenda. Such meetings can decide on the appointments of provincial governors – powerful representatives of the Interior Ministry at regional levels – and ambassadors, a prerogative currently exclusive to the king. The monarch can still dissolve Parliament but after consulting a newly introduced Constitutional Court, of which half the members are to be appointed by the king.