Morocco's Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane was reelected leader of the ruling Party of Justice and Development on Sunday at the PJD's first conference since the moderate Islamists won November polls.

An AFP correspondent said Benkirane scooped 2,240 votes, or a whopping 85 percent, against 346 for the contender, Foreign Minister Saad Dine El Otmani.

More than 3,000 PJD members attended the two-day conference in Rabat that opened on Saturday and was largely focused on the anti-regime revolt in Syria that has reportedly cost more than 17,000 lives since March 2011.

The PJD won parliamentary elections last November that King Mohammed VI called early to pre-empt swelling Arab Spring-inspired protests. Its leader Benkirane was appointed prime minister in January.