Take his Internet site to begin with. One of few candidates to have a site, his strikes the surfer with its slickness. You are then surprised to find that his site is exclusively in French, which is certainly not the preferred language of Moroccan voters - of the dozens of electoral leaflets I've read, only one was bilingual, Arabic/French. Furthermore, Rhamna is probably one of the least web-connected regions of Morocco. What is even more impressive is the amount of election material produced so far: nine daily campaign newsletters, of eight pages each, in Arabic, some of them accessible on his site.

Fouad Ali El Himma has furthermore received visits from sports and showbiz stars - among them world-famous middle distance champion Hicham el Guerrouj, a close personal friend of King Mohamed VI, who wouldn't make such a public political statement if it had any chance of displeasing the KIng - more than all the other candidates put together.

The local voters haven't been late to catch on. They attend his electoral meetings en masse, hoping that someone so close to the King, who until some weeks ago was the King's trusted second, would and could bring them some of the benefits such closenes implies: public works, investments, employment, and the like. It is very probable that such a candidacy in such a destitute region would, without any vote-rigging, sweep the stakes. In the event, the Moroccan press has noted that the other candidates in the constituency have become invisible - campaigning against FAEH is close to campaigning against the King, and by the way, who wants to back a loser?

This has gone perhaps too far, risking to damage the credibility of that particular election and of the electoral process at large: FAEH has taken the unheard of step of publishing his competitor's press releases - the PPS (centrist, ex-communist) and the PSU (left wing, calling for a revision of the Constitution), where these deny having stopped campaigning against him...

FAEH isn't exactly new to the electoral competition: he was elected in 1995 member of the Chamber of representatives, for which he runs now, for part of the same constituency (the electoral system was different then, first-past-the-post), but didn't seek re-election in 1997. He was the mayor of the town of Benguérir, the largest town in the Rhamna constituency, a derelict town plagued by unemployment and sub-standard public equipment, between 1992 and 1997.

His local roots are strong. If he was born in Marrakech, his family is from the Rhamna region, and he's considered as "one of us" by voters there - one voter interviewed by Reuters describes FAEH as "a gift of God". His own list comprises Hamid Narjiss, his uncle (thanks Loula for the info) and former journalist Fatiha Layadi, who's worked with the ministry of Communication and who's a descendant of the famous caïd Layadi, famous in the region during the French protectorate.

For a flavor of his campaign, go here and look at the picture - kissing hands is a typically Moroccan sign of respect to higher authority, be it familial, religious, tribal or political...

For some more about FAEH, en français, see here.