This is no stunning surprise to anyone who's lived through the apathetic election campaign the last few days. Living in Rabat and voting in Casablanca, I met with campaign teams only once - the PJD, and have had trouble finding the different parties' leaflets - some of them are posted here, more will be forthcoming. My father-in-law, an avid newspaper reader and a regular mosque visiter, couldn't be bothered to vote, even for the PJD. My wife, her mother or her sisters didn't care either. Many at work didn't bother. Hadn't it been for all these leaflets littering some parts of town, you wouldn't have noticed that an elections was going on.

Many editorialists, among them French-speaking and secular Tel Quel's editor, Ahmed Reda Benchemsi, had previously underlined the shallowness of the elections, since most powers are concentrated into the King's hands. Ordinary voters had already grasped this. Even American experts predicted such an outcome.

The only ones dumbfounded would seem to be the few francophone intellectuals, NGO leaders and academics whom I've had the displeasure to hear on Moroccan radio tonight - they either blamed the voters or the parties (they gleefully noted that the PJD wasn't such a threat to modern civilisation as we know it as they previously feared), but not one of them had anything to say on the unbalanced balance of power, the major contributing factor to public dissatisfaction with elections. In fact, I was surprised to hear, on the private Atlantic radio station streetwalk interviews during the past week where voters openly said that they didn't see any point in voting, referring to the King.

Such a low turnout will of course affect the parties' claim to the premiership, which had already been denied to them in 2002 - current prime minister, Driss Jettou, has no political affiliation and has never been elected to any public office, a very fitting profile under Morocco's current system (but he has quite a good reputation, being hard-working, unassuming and honest, rare qualities in Morocco's political circles). My bet is on former deputy interior minister Fouad Ali El Himma, the King's closest personal friend, due to be elected in the Rhamna constituency without party affiliation. His nomination could be presented as a way to renew the political scene - which it will of course be very far from doing. It would on the contrary mark an even sharper turn to the increasing concentration of power in the hands of the King and his close circle of royal advisors - les conseillers du Roi - and trusted high officials. Not to mention the blow it will land on the Kingdom's so-called democratic credentials, a vital prerequisite for the extensive economic and diplomatic support Morocco enjoys from its largest Western partners - the US, France, Spain and the EU.

For further comments en français, see here.