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For the first time, the government has stipulated a 12 per cent quota for women in Friday’s municipal polls — a major leap over the 0.58 per cent, or 127 women, now holding local council seats across the country, according to interior ministry figures. “I’ve never been involved in politics before,” says Benhamou, behind the wheel of her white, four-wheel drive vehicle as she drums up support in the town of Bouknadel, 30 kilometres north of the capital Rabat.

She is running for the new, reformist Authenticity and Modernity Party, or PAM, an alliance of five smaller groups facing a first electoral challenge it views as a litmus test for general elections three years away. “I’ve lived abroad and would like to see women and children in my own country in good health, living a normal life, as they do in Europe or North America.”

“You know, many homes here don’t have water or electricity and there are still many people who don’t know how to read or write. This saddens me and I want to change that,” she said. Contesting an election held the same day as her June 12 birthday has buoyed this pharmacist who holds a doctorate degree, has studied in Poland and the United States and headed to Thailand to learn about alternative medicine. “It’s a very, very positive sign,” she said. “By entering politics, I’m trying to do something for my country.”

Some 13 million voters cast their ballot for nearly 28,000 council seats in 1,503 towns and cities across the country — the only vote to take place between the last general election in 2007 and the next one in 2012. Women represent 15.7 per cent of the candidates — about 20,000 women in all — according to interior ministry figures, or triple the 4.8 per cent in the last local election in 2003. The 12 per cent quota was imposed with little fanfare or opposition — unlike some earlier measures promoted by King Mohammed VI to end inequities towards women.

A moderniser who took over in 1999, the king has encouraged social and economic reforms while distancing Morocco — a Nato ally with aspirations to join the European Union — from rights charges. He notably drove through a landmark reform in family law called “Mudawana” — boosting women’s rights in divorce, property ownership and other areas — that finally passed in 2004. Two years later, Morocco for the first time appointed women preachers or guides in vulnerable zones. Kaoutar said she chose to run for PAM, founded by former interior minister Fouad Ali El Himma, a friend of the king, “because it’s a new party. I saw its program and I liked it.”

The vote was PAM’s first serious challenge to both historic groupings like the nationalist Istiqlal party of Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi and the main opposition force in parliament, the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD). “These local elections are a preparation for the general elections and a strong signal that we have our sights set on 2012,” said PAM secretary general Mohamed Cheikh Biadillah.

In Kaoutar’s district, the main rival was Istiqlal. Of the 30 parties that took part in the vote, PAM and Istiqlal fielded the most candidates and were the only parties running in more than 50 per cent of voting districts. “Many people in Morocco believe in change, in a better tomorrow, and we have what it takes: talent and energy,” said Kaoutar, who views education as Morocco’s number one handicap ... “along with so many others”.

On the campaign trail, she shook hands easily and was anything but shy about her gender, posing happily on a farm tractor, the PAM party’s symbol. “Women know more than men about how to organise,” she said. “They are more patient, stronger. They are also more reasonable and more attentive to the needs of children, women.... and men.”