Morocco unhappy with UN vote identification

Morocco has said it is disappointed by the list of potential voters issued by the UN on Monday for those seeking to take part in the proposed referendum on independence for Western Sahara or its incorporation into Morocco, Reuters reported. Government spokesman Khalid Alioua said on Tuesday that Morocco was “unhappy and disappointed” by the list. The UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) which reviewed 51,220 members of the last three ethnic groupings who presented themselves last year, found that 2,130 were eligible to vote, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said on Monday in New York. The Moroccan government, through Alioua’s statement, said that these new eligible voters represented 4 percent of the applications presented to the UN identification mission, according to Reuters. These figures brings to 86,381 the number of eligible voters the UN has identified from the initial 147,000 applicants. Meanwhile, the Identification Commission began hearing appeals from disqualified voters this week at 14 centres in Morocco, the territory of Western Sahara, Mauritania and refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria. The referendum, first due in 1992, has been postponed repeatedly on difference between Morocco and the Sharawi over voter eligibility. The currently appeal processes could, the UN has said, push back the referendum beyond 2002.