PARTI DéMOCRATIQUE DE L'INDéPENDANCE (PDI)

political party in morocco.

Formed after World War II by a splinter group originating in the Istiqlal Party and led by Muhammad Hassan al-Wazzani, the Parti Démocratique de l'Indépendance (PDI) briefly joined with the Istiqlal and the two nationalist parties in the Spanish zone in 1951 to form the short-lived Moroccan National Front. On its own again, and deriving its support mainly in the predominantly Berber tribal areas, it received six portfolios in the first representative Moroccan government, established in December 1955 after the sultan had returned from exile. Its only clear idea was uniting around the person of the king, as well as opposing the hegemony of the Istiqlal. In 1959, following the defection of a number of party leaders to the Union Nationale des Forces Populaires (UNFP), it renamed itself the Parti Démocratique Constitutionnel (PDC) and competed in the 1963 elections within the framework of the pro-palace Front pour la Défense des Institutions Constitutionelles (FDIC). In recent decades, the party competed in local and national elections with little success, winning no seats in the 1977 and 1984 parliamentary elections. In the 1993 parliamentary elections, again operating under the PDI banner, and headed by one of the original PDI founding members and ex-Moroccan diplomat Thami alWazzani, it experienced a revival of sorts, winning nine seats. In the 1997 elections, it dropped to just one seat; in the 2002 elections, it won two seats.

see also front pour la défense des institutions constitutionelles (fdic); istiqlal party: morocco; morocco: political parties in; parti démocratique constitutionnel (pdc); union nationale des forces populaires (unfp); wazzani, muhammad hassan al-.

bruce maddy-weitzman