King of Morocco appoints businessman Akhannouch as head of government

Moroccan King Mohammed VI on Friday appointed businessman Aziz Akhannouch to head a new government after his National Rally of Independents (RNI) won the legislative elections.

The king appointed Akhannouch “head of government and instructed him to form a new government” following Wednesday’s elections, according to a palace statement.

The RNI won 102 of 395 seats in parliament, defeating the Moderate Islamist Party for Justice and Development (PJD), which had led the governing coalition for a decade but won just 13 seats, according to results released by the Ministry of the Interior after counting all the ballots. .

Akhannouch, billionaire businessman, has headed RNI since 2016.

His party is considered close to the palace and has been in every coalition government for the past 23 years, except for a brief period between 2012 and 2013.

Akhannouch praised “the popular will for change”, calling the results a “victory for democracy”.

Changes to the voting system meant that it was the first time that Morocco’s 18 million voters voted in legislative and local elections on the same day, in a bid to increase turnout.

Akhannouch’s party also came first in the local elections, winning 9,995 of 31,503 seats, and in the regional ballot with 196 of the 678 positions.