The Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) has hit back at the National Rally of Independents (RNI) over accusations that it has been poaching elected officials ahead of next month’s legislative elections, rejecting the claims and pointing to its rival’s own recruitment of candidates from other parties in 2021.
The response followed a meeting of PAM’s political bureau on August 26, a day after the RNI accused its coalition partner of “wooing” and pressuring MPs, elected representatives and local leaders to cross over ahead of the September 23 polls.
PAM said the RNI statement contained “falsehoods” and rejected “categorically” any suggestion that it had forced or pressured politicians into joining its ranks.
The party said it had “never forced, does not force and will not force” any citizen to join it, arguing that political affiliation was a matter of free choice protected by the Constitution and the law.
PAM cites 2021 precedent
PAM also questioned the RNI’s objections to politicians switching parties, recalling that the latter had fielded more than 17 candidates from five other political formations in the 2021 legislative elections.
Six of them, PAM said, had previously been members of its own party.
It added that dozens of elected representatives from municipal and regional councils and the House of Councillors had also moved to the RNI ahead of the previous elections.
PAM said it had not objected at the time, treating the moves as an exercise of “freedom of political choice”, a principle it said it continued to uphold.
The party also maintained that the candidacies of its new members complied with constitutional and legal provisions.
It said it would “accept lessons from no party” on respect for the law and the rules governing political and institutional life, while keeping its doors open to people wishing to join of their own accord.
Row intensifies ahead of polls
The exchange follows a series of defections and political moves that have strained relations between the two coalition partners.
Outgoing Midelt MP Marouane Chbaatou, a member of the RNI political bureau, announced on Tuesday that he was leaving the party to join PAM.
Fouzi Lekjaa, minister delegate in charge of the budget, has also joined PAM after previously having no formal party affiliation.
The RNI responded on Tuesday with a statement accusing PAM of targeting several of its elected representatives. It said the number of cases and similarity of the approaches meant they could no longer be regarded as isolated incidents.
Read also : RNI accuses PAM of poaching its candidates as election battle heats up
The dispute was compounded by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to House Speaker and RNI leader Rachid Talbi Alami.
In the recording, Talbi Alami is heard saying that Lekjaa would “never get the finance portfolio” and that the post would remain with Economy and Finance Minister Nadia Fettah.
PAM’s response has now shifted the argument from whether politicians are being recruited to whether the RNI can credibly object to a practice from which, PAM argues, it benefited extensively at the previous election.
