Parti National Démocratique (PND)
PARTI NATIONAL DéMOCRATIQUE (PND)
political party in morocco.
Originally known as the Parti des Indépendants Démocrates, the PND was founded in 1981 by a breakaway faction of the Rassemblement National des Indépendants (RNI). Led by Muhammad Arsalane al-Jadidi and Abdel Hamid Kacemi, it included fifty-seven members of parliament and three cabinet ministers. The group represented large landowning interests who opposed International Monetary Fund recommendations to reduce credit to the agricultural sector, particularly the large commercial farms. Its numbers in parliament declined by more than half in the 1984 parliamentary elections, to twenty-four; it maintained this figure in the 1993 elections, when it ran as part of the pro-palace Entente (Wifaq) bloc. In a government reshuffle in January 1995 the PND received three cabinet posts. In the 1997 elections, it dropped to only ten seats and was left out of the new government. In the 2002 elections it attained twelve seats and remained outside of the government.
see also morocco: political parties in; rassemblement national des indépendants (rni).
bruce maddy-weitzman