RABAT: Morocco is struggling to decide what kind of democracy it should become after years of cautious reform helped the north African kingdom shed a repressive past. Its dilemma will sharpen as the clock ticks down to elections next year in which the business elite’s message of secular modernity faces a challenge from resurgent Islamists.

The outcome will be closely watched around Africa and in the Middle East, regions where a push towards full democracy is an important priority of US foreign policy.

The result may determine the speed of change supported by paramount leader King Mohammed, a popular figure whose wide prerogatives include naming the prime minister and wielding a veto over legislation.

Improvements have been made on issues such as human rights and free speech, critics say, but the authorities have merely tinkered where politics is concerned.

“We face a real catastrophe here because of the credibility gap between talk about change and the real democratic transition,” said Djamel Bouraoui, a political commentator and editor of Arabic-language newspaper Annass.

King Mohammed ignored the outcome of 2002 parliamentary elections and picked businessman Driss Jettou as prime minister.

Jettou has no known political affiliation.

“It is mind-boggling that after years of reforms Moroccans are still waiting for the first representative government to emerge from the ballot box,” leftist and university teacher Mohamed Sassi told a gathering of political activists.

In a country where 10 per cent of the around 32 million population own 90 per cent of the wealth, activists seeking a greater say for ordinary people face the power imbalance between a strong monarchy and a weak government, and widespread apathy and graft.

A report widely discussed by politicians and newspaper commentators said Morocco was the only state that competed with Lebanon for the title of “the most open Arab country” but it said further progress could not be taken for granted.—Reuters