On Tuesday, during the regular May session of the “Oulad Tayeb” municipality, which falls under the Fes province, a serious incident sparked shock and outrage after a municipal council member exposed a shocking bribery scandal against the head of the municipal council, Abdel Latif Murtada, belonging to the National Rally of Independents party. The council member accused Murtada of offering him 40,000 dirhams as a bribe in exchange for his vote in favor of him, in the presence of a local authority representative.
During the session, the council member did not hesitate to publicly reveal the details of the incident, brandishing a copy of a bank cheque before the attendees, claiming it proved he received the sum of 40,000 dirhams as a bribe from the president.
He explicitly stated in front of the Bashaa and the attendees: “I took 4 million from the president and ate it, but I didn’t vote for him because I didn’t like him, and here is a copy of the cheque he gave me to vote for him as president.”
The same council member expressed his disbelief: “How can I vote for him when he starts with bribery, while he lost 500,000 and only earns 4,000 dirhams from the municipality? How will he compensate for this loss? This man wants to exploit the community; he is a real fraud.”
These alarming statements reveal suspicions of financial and electoral corruption within an elected institution, necessitating urgent intervention from the public prosecution to conduct a thorough and comprehensive investigation into the matter, to ascertain the truth of what happened, and to impose legal penalties if these claims are proven.
The incident also raises questions about the extent to which principles of transparency and integrity are respected within elected councils, and the role of representatives of authority in reporting such abuses.
Authorities are expected to take action to prevent any mismanagement of public money and electoral processes, and to clarify whether this is an isolated incident or if there are other breaches yet to come to light.
