AFP: Moroccans welcome king's reform promises

The king unveiled plans for constitutional reforms including a popularly elected prime minister with real powers, instead of a royal appointee, addressing the nation for the first time since pro-reform protests last month.

The country's two television channels rebroadcast large extracts of the address throughout the morning Thursday, accompanied by mostly positive commentary.

Errr, the primary state TV did the whole thing actually, not extracts.

AFP: Moroccans welcome king's reform promises

In Rabat manager Naima Glaf told AFP he hoped the announcement would see an overhaul of the constitution.

"We want a constitution that breaks with the one we have now, a real separation of powers and a more powerful prime minister who can be held accountable," he said.

 ....

"I think he did not mention concrete reforms like the fight against corruption in the circles of power, social injustices, and the unfairness of the access to administrative jobs, which are monopolised by certain families," he said.

This last item would not properly be something for the King to address re constitutional reform, as opening up the field of competition should be a byproduct, not something from the Royal hand. The comment of course refers to the Fassi elite and the connected oligarchy.

Opposition Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) leader Abdelilah Benkirane said late Wednesday that Mohammed had "reacted positively to the demands made by the parties and young people".

"We are almost surprised," he said.

The almost surprised part is slyly amusing. One thing that makes the Islamist party more attractive than the others is that they're often more interesting. The main secular parties are largely BORING.

BBC News - Protests across the Middle East and North Africa

 1502: Meanwhile Hisham Almiraat, a Moroccan blogger based in France, tells the BBC World Service that Wednesday's speech by King Mohammed was "a step in the right direction, but there are many grey areas". At the centre of the Moroccan opposition's demands, he says, "is the constitutional reform that the Moroccans have been calling for for so long. If Morocco would become a parliamentary system, everything else would change. What we have now is a constitution that provides the king with absolute powers. It makes accountability, which is a basic principle of democracy, impossible in Morocco."

Morocco king announces constitutional reform plan | Top News | Reuters

Saeed Binjebli, an organiser of the youth-led movement for change, said the speech should limit protests in the short-term but social woes could fuel more protests.

"This was a very bold speech," he said. "The king responded favourably to all our demands on the constitutional front."

I should note that I had it from good sources well before this that a number of these items were being chewed over well-before the Arab Revolts. The main effect seems to be to have shaken things loose and upend the people arguing for " time to digest" reforms.