RABAT, Morocco — Moroccan King Mohammed VI laid out a series of constitutional reforms in a speech Friday night that he said will turn the North African country into a constitutional monarchy.
But the king remained the supreme commander of the army and a new article formalized him as the highest religious authority in the country. The speech marked the culmination of a three-month review of the constitution at the order of the king as protests calling for reform swept the North African monarchy in February.
Immediately after the speech ended, cars flying Moroccan flags drove through the streets of the capital honking their horns and young people marched along the wide boulevards banging drums and cheering.
The king said the constitutional reform “confirms the features and mechanisms of the parliamentary nature of the Moroccan political system” and laid the basis for an “efficient, rational constitutional system whose core elements are the balance, independence and separation of powers, and whose foremost goal is the freedom and dignity of citizens.”
The new constitution elevates the prime minister to the “head of government” and ensures he is selected from the party that received the most votes in election, rather than just chosen by the king.
The prime minister will also have the new powers of choosing and dismissing Cabinet members and will be able to fill a number of other government positions, though the selection of the powerful regional governors will remain the king’s prerogative.
Activists from the pro-democracy February 20 movement dismissed many of the changes, describing them as cosmetic.
“Before we had an absolute monarch, now we have an absolute monarch that is a pope as well,” said Elaabadila Chbihna, an activist with the February 20 pro-democracy movement.
Like the rest of the Middle East, Morocco has been swept by popular protests calling for reform, though not on the scale of many countries in the region.