Morocco's moderate Islamist PJD party is on course to win a parliamentary election, partial results showed this afternoon, in what would be the second victory for Islamists in the region in the wake of the "Arab Spring" uprisings.
Incomplete results from Friday's vote indicate that the PJD will lead a coalition government in partnership with the secularist party of the outgoing prime minister and two other groups.
Tunisia, birth-place of the Arab Spring, sent ripples through the Middle East last month when a moderate Islamist movement won the country's first democratic election.
Morocco has not had a revolution of the kind seen elsewhere in the region, with its ruler, King Mohammed, still firmly in charge.
But he has pushed through limited reforms to head off a revolt, and the PJD has benefited from a resurgence for Islamists sweeping the region.
The party has said it will promote Islamic finance though it will steer clear of imposing a strict moral code on society and is loyal to the monarch.
Announcing the partial count from Friday's election, Interior Minister Taib Cherkaoui told a news conference the PJD was on course to be the biggest contingent in parliament.
With results known for 288 seats in the 395-seat parliament, the PJD had 80 seats, said Cherkaoui, whose ministry organised the election. The Istiqlal party, headed by outgoing prime minister Abbas Al Fassi, was in second place with 45 seats, he said.
Asked if his party was willing to form a coalition with the PJD, Al Fassi told reporters: "Yes, yes. The PJD's victory is a victory for democracy."
The partial count gives the PJD, Istiqlal and two smaller parties -- which said before the election they would govern as a coalition if they won -- a total of 170 seats in parliament, just short of a majority.