Word: hassan
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High in a snow-swathed cedar grove in the Atlas Mountains, the young King of Morocco stood casting alone for trout in an icy stream. Hassan II enjoyed good luck, which was not surprising since no one else was allowed to fish the well-stocked reserve at the royal resort of Ifrane. Nor were there any messy chores. No sooner would the King hook another prize than five servants rushed to remove the wriggling catch from the royal line...
...outward calm that marked his vacation last week, Morocco's 33-year-old monarch had problems on his mind. They had to do with the outcome three weeks ago of the nation's first legislative election in seven years of independence. Hassan had been proud to take this cautious step toward democracy, but he had also been confident that his own royal party, the F.D.C.I., would win an overwhelming majority of seats of the 144-member House of Representatives...
...Hassan's Royalists expected to win enough seats to assure the King of a plurality. In any case, he did not have to worry much, for there were limits to his experiment in democracy. Under a new constitution he personally drafted last year, he can dissolve the House at any time he chooses...
...stake were 144 seats for a House of Representatives, the first freely elected chamber since Morocco won independence from France seven years ago, and the field was wide open. Hassan's major opposition parties, the nationalist Istiqlal and the leftist National Union of Popular Forces, were out in strength, and even the Communist Party-officially outlawed but quietly tolerated-fielded three candidates. Opposition newspapers circulated freely, and one prominent politician got away with calling the King a liar...
...months before the election, Hassan also entered the race by having his closest confidant, Interior-Agriculture Minister Ahmed Reda Guedira, 40, organize a pro-Hassan party christened the Front for the Defense of Constitutional Institutions. Unsurprisingly, the F.D.C.I. enjoyed the use of government vehicles to haul wondering tribesmen to rallies, plus the organized support of the government's administrative bureaucracy. Flush with campaign cash, F.D.C.I. Leader Guedira (who got some pointers when he witnessed the 1960 U.S. election campaign) passed out thousands of free miniature soccer balls, T-shirts and campaign buttons bearing the royalist party color (yellow). More...