Opinion article by: former Algerian diplomat Amar Belani
The results of the legislative elections in Morocco still hold surprises
Algeria Gate: In the occupied Western Sahara, democracy took a quantum leap, while the rest of Morocco stayed where it was, committed to silence and calm. 77% turnout in Laayoune versus 38% in the kingdom! Statistically, this is closer to a ritual miracle than to an election.

This achievement is presented to us as proof of a spontaneous love for the ballot box, in a region where merely uttering the word “referendum” has made the United Nations cough since 1975.
Strange, this electoral enthusiasm precisely in the place where the real question has never been allowed to be put to a popular vote: “To whom does ownership of this territory belong?”
This perfected trick has become a ready-made recipe. Take an electorate shaped over decades by declared settler colonialism, add a sprinkle of carefully invited “international observers,” then decorate the scene with eight “Sahrawi” female deputies displayed as prizes for progressive virtue, and the vote is thus transformed into a certificate of sovereignty, stamped with a diplomatic visa.

But the high point of the show remains this contradiction: while Rabat and Casablanca shrug their shoulders at the ballot boxes, Laayoune races to the polling stations with the enthusiasm of a last-minute conversion.
A great deal of naivety is required not to see in this anything other than a polished production in which the record turnout is used not so much to elect deputies as to silence, once again, the issue of the occupied Western Sahara with blows of fictitious percentages.

The sincerity of a vote is not measured by the number of hands raised when you have carefully chosen who is allowed inside the hall.
So be it! Organize a self-determination referendum.



