RABAT, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Ahmed Touizi, a member of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), was elected on Tuesday speaker of Morocco's House of Representatives, the lower house of parliament, the official Moroccan news agency MAP reported.
Touizi received 220 votes out of 369 votes cast, against 59 for Driss El Azami El Idrissi, candidate of the opposition Justice and Development Party (PJD). A total of 90 ballots were declared invalid.
The election came a day after the announcement of the governing majority, which brings together the PAM, the Istiqlal, the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, and the Party of Progress and Socialism. The four parties hold 207 of the 395 seats, nine above the absolute-majority threshold of 198.
Touizi's election also follows the formation of a government led by Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, PAM's national coordinator.
On Sept. 29, El Mansouri was appointed as the country's new prime minister, becoming Morocco's first female head of government.
The PAM finished first with 97 seats in the 395-seat House of Representatives in the elections late last month. Under the constitution, Morocco's king appoints the prime minister from the party that wins the most seats, which then forms a government. ■