King names Islamist party chief as PM

Rabat: Morocco's King Mohammad VI on Tuesday named the head of the Islamist party that won last week's election as prime minister to lead talks on the formation of a coalition government, the palace said.

Abdulilah Bin Kirane, head of the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), was summoned to the palace after results showed his party won the biggest block of votes in Friday's ballot.

It was the first election in the north African country since the monarch introduced constitutional reforms as the Arab Spring swept through the region.

The PJD won 107 of the 395 seats in parliament, a result that set the stage for it to become the first Islamist party at the head of a coalition government in Morocco.