Moroccan Youth Group Pushes Political Participation

By Nadim Kourda

With the support of a MEPI Local Grant, Association Action Jeunesse, or 2AJ, recently completed its SAWT project – meaning “voice” in Arabic – a successful public awareness campaign that encouraged local you to register and vote in Morocco’s legislative elections held in September.

2AJ, a non-governmental organization (NGO) of young, dynamic Moroccans living in the Cité ONCF in Casablanca, Morocco, used the motto “Vote Morocco” when staging a series of events, such as soccer tournaments in neighborhood secondary schools, to draw in youth so they could learn about the importance of democracy and the electoral process.
“The games gathered hundreds of young people and were a wonderful occasion to distribute flyers and t-shirts to promote voting and civic education,” said Younes Naomi, 2AJ’s energetic president.

During the soccer matches, members of 2AJ, who earlier had been trained on different aspects of elections and presentation techniques, stressed the importance of voting and youth participation in the political process to students and even some of their parents.

The “Vote Morocco” motto was used again during two roundtable discussions organized by 2AJ.  While only two of the political parties showed up, despite 2AJ inviting representatives from all of the country’s parties, debate was still lively and interesting, with some 80 participants engaging in politically-charged discussions.

“It’s a shame to see that parties did not show more interest in our actions,” said Naomi.  “If candidates are supposed to represent our region but do not care about youth, then you shouldn’t be surprised when youngsters do not feel any ownership of their ideas, which is exactly what was represented in the election results.”

Official voter turnout for Morocco’s September 11, 2007, elections to the lower chamber of parliament was listed at an historical low of 37 percent, down from 51 percent in the 2002 elections, although many observers said the actual tally was even lower.

The final phase of the 2AJ project was designed to increase voter turnout among youth for future Moroccan elections.  Members of 2AJ organized a mock election day in five high schools in the neighborhoods of Cité ONCF, with students taking part in all phases of the process, from holding regular meetings with school administrators to organizing their own electoral campaigns.

According to Naomi, some of the candidates showed real leadership talent and surprisingly efficient political tactics during their campaigns, while student enthusiasm on the election day was huge.  “For many of them this was the first time their opinion counted in a public matter,” Naomi said.

When asked about what he learned from his experience carrying out the MEPI Local Grants project, Naomi said he felt that the political needs of young people in Morocco where not being reflected in the platforms of his country’s political parties.

“Many people asked me why, if I cared so much about youth political participation, I wasn’t among the candidates myself,” Naomi said.  “This wasn’t the purpose of the work of our NGO,” he added, although when pressed he did not exclude the option of running for office in the future.

Nadim Kourda, Financial Specialist in the MEPI Tunis Regional Office, met with 2AJ during a recent trip to Morocco.