In Morocco, a Hush at the Polls

RABAT, Morocco, Sept. 11 -- In a political system geared to block the rise of Muslim extremism, the most worrying voice in Morocco's parliamentary elections was the silent one, politicians and analysts said.

The 37 percent turnout of registered voters on Friday, which the government said was the lowest ever in this North African nation, signals a growing sense of public disenfranchisement from a system that reserves power almost exclusively for the king, Mohammed VI.

The fear is that the discontented may turn again to violence to make themselves heard. Bombings by Islamic radicals in Morocco killed more than 40 people in 2003 and this year.

"The danger of all this is we have a silent majority now," said Ali Amar, editor of Le Journal Hebdomadaire in Casablanca, one of the country's most influential newsweeklies. "And the silent people are more and more the radicals."

In neighboring Algeria, where elections for the national assembly drew only 35 percent of registered voters in May, bombings Thursday and Saturday killed more than 50 people.

Friday's parliamentary elections in Morocco were only the second under Mohammed. His father, King Hassan II, ensured artificially high turnouts in internationally criticized elections by busing voters to the polls. The first national elections under Mohammed, in 2002, recorded a 52 percent turnout.

Mohammed began his reign in 1999 with promises to strengthen democracy, but since the 2003 bombings, his government has concentrated on combating violence by religious extremists.

Parliament has few real powers, and the constitution makes it all but impossible for any party to gain a majority in the legislature. Critics say a government redrawing of election districts after the 2002 elections was meant to dilute the strength of conservative Islamic voters.

The country's most popular Islamic political group, the fundamentalist Justice and Charity bloc, is outlawed but also boycotts elections.

A moderate Islamic bloc, the Justice and Development Party, did unexpectedly well in the 2002 vote. That showing, and a 2006 survey by the U.S.-based International Republican Institute indicating that nearly 47 percent of Moroccans supported the party, led its leaders and political analysts here to predict that it would come in first in Friday's elections.

Instead, the bloc won only four more seats than the 42 it had won in 2002, the government announced over the weekend, making it the second-largest party in Parliament instead of the third.

The government warned then that the plunge in turnout was troubling.