Morocco's King Names Head of Islamist Party as New Prime Minister

The leader of an Islamist party that has never before participated in Morocco’s governments was chosen by the king as the country’s new head of government on Tuesday.The Justice and Development Party won the most votes Friday in a national election made possible by the pro-democracy demonstrations that swept this North African kingdom of 32 million earlier this year as part of the regionwide Arab Spring.King Mohammed VI received Abdelilah Benkirane, the secretary general of the Justice and Development Party, in the mountain town of Midelt on Tuesday and named him head of government with the task of forming a new government.A member of the opposition PJD leading the government would have been unthinkable just a year ago, but the Arab Spring movement led the king to reform Morocco’s constitution.Under it, he must choose a head of government from the party that won the most votes in the election and the PJD took 107 seats out of the 395 in Parliament, almost twice as many as the second-place finisher.The constitution also gives the prime minister more powers to govern.With the fall or weakening of Western-backed secular dictatorships, people across North Africa have been turning to Islamist parties that have been in the opposition as an alternative.