Billionaire Aziz Akhannouch Appointed as Morocco's New Prime Minister
His party RNI's win came after a massive loss for the PJD in the latest elections.
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Billionaire and Moroccan PM Aziz Akhannouch at a news conference on 9 September
After an unprecedented turnout at Morocco's elections, billionaire Aziz Akhannouch was appointed as the new head of government.
King Mohammed VI has appointed the businessman “head of the government and tasked him with forming a new government” a statement from the palace announced on Friday.
Akhannouch is the leader of the liberal RNI party which won 102 of parliament’s 395 seats, thrashing the Islamist PJD which only took 13 seats, losing 113 seats overnight.
The party, which is known for its Islamist views, expressed its confusion over the results, calling them incomprehensible and illogical, saying they do not reflect the political scene in the country nor the party's stature.
The PJD previously led the governing coalition for a decade but took a blow in the last election which had a 50.35 turnout at the polls, with 18 million voters casting ballots in both parliamentary and local elections, a unique occurrence.
Akhannouch, whose fortune is valued at $2 billion according to Forbes, had led the RNI since 2016 and promised to form a new coalition government which will draw from the main opposition PAM and the conservative Istiqlal party.
He previously served as Morocco's minister of Agriculture from 2007 to 2021 and is the CEO of Akwa Group, a conglomerate company engaged primarily in the oil and gas industry.
