In response to a call for more youth involvement in the political arena in Morocco, The International Republican Institute (IRI) has concentrated recent events on Moroccan youth, holding trainings and consultations to encourage young candidates and activists.
King Mohamed VI recently outlined a need in Morocco for greater representation of youth in the political arena, and announced that the age threshold to become a candidate would be lowered from 23 to 21 years of age.
In response, IRI held political leadership and grassroots campaign trainings in Oujda, Morocco on December 13-14, 2008 as well as consultations with youth party representatives on grassroots organizing in advance of the upcoming June 2009 municipal elections.
During the two-day series of group trainings more than 90 participants from six different political parties, including local political party and community leaders, parliamentarians, potential young candidates and youth activists, attended multiparty workshops on the subject of youth leadership and grassroots campaign organization
IRI also held consultations on a database project that party youth representatives have designed to organize membership at the grassroots level in the region of Oujda. IRI trainers provided suggestions on how to specifically tailor the database to improve voter mobilization and get-out-the-vote efforts.
The interest in the database project and the participation in the trainings reflect a growing effort on the part of Moroccan youth to organize and mobilize. The youth activists expressed interest in attending further trainings on the practical application of technology in politics at the newly built IRI Training Centre in Rabat, Morocco.
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