Morocco's moderate Islamists said on Saturday they were poised for an unprecedented electoral win, the latest religious party to achieve spectacular gains on the back of the Arab Spring.

A month after Islamists won Tunisia's post-revolution election and days before their predicted surge in Egyptian polls, their Moroccan counterparts claimed to have achieved a similar breakthrough without bloodshed.

With official results expected on Sunday, the Justice and Development Party (PJD) -- a moderate Islamist movement which accepts the monarchy -- said its own figures showed it won more than 100 seats in the 395-seat assembly.

"We won even in small villages where we are not traditionally present," PJD parliamentary bloc leader Lahcen Daoudi said, adding it was a "significant victory".

"We have already won over 80 seats and I can tell you that we will easily have over 100 seats. This is a historic turning point," added Mustapha el Khelfi, managing editor of Attajdid, the PJD's mouthpiece.

As longtime rulers were being toppled in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, Morocco had its own pro-reform protest movement earlier this year.

But King Mohammed VI, the latest scion of a monarchy that has ruled the country for 350 years, stemmed the Arab Spring contagion by offering reforms curbing his near absolute powers.

According to the new constitution overwhelmingly approved in a July referendum, the monarch must now pick the prime minister from the party which wins the most seats in parliament, instead of naming whomever he pleases.

The king proposed a new constitution on March 9, just 17 days after thousands of people took to the streets across Morocco calling on him to give up some of his powers in the biggest anti-establishment protests in the country in decades.

PJD secretary general Abdelilah Benkirane acknowledged Saturday that his party would have to tailor its programme to appease prospective coalition partners and the international community on whose investment and tourism the country relies heavily.

But he said his party was "open to everyone" when it comes to forming alliances.

"The nub of our programme and of those who will govern with us will have a double axis, democracy and good governance," he told the France 24 television channel.

"From now on, Moroccans will feel that the state is at their service and not the other way about," Benkirane added. "That is very important for us."

The PJD has gradually increased its share of the vote in Morocco, seen as one of the most stable countries in the region.

After winning just eight seats in 1997, it surged in popularity, scooping 42 seats in the 2002 election, the first of King Mohammed VI's reign.

It then increased its share in the last election in 2007 when it finished second with 47 seats.

The party focused at first on social issues, such as opposition to summer music festivals and the sale of alcohol, but has shifted to issues with broader voter appeal like the fight against corruption and high unemployment.

During the current campaign it promised to cut poverty in half and raise the minimum wage by 50 percent.

The Islamist party's main rivals in the polls were Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi's centre-right Independence party and the Coalition for Democracy, an eight-party pro-monarchy bloc that includes two of the five governing parties.

Provisional interior ministry figures put the turnout at 45 percent, up from 37 percent from the last parliamentary election in 2007, but lower than the 51.6 percent turnout recorded in 2002.

"This turnout, if confirmed, does not reflect enthusiasm for the new constitution or political parties," said Haizam Amirah Fernandez, senior analyst for the Arab world at Spanish think tank Real Instituto Elcano.

Morocco's pro-reform February 20 protest movement, responsible for the protests staged just before the king announced his plans for a new constitution, had called on voters to boycott the elections.

It says the constitutional reforms are insufficient.

In all, 31 parties competed for the 395 seats in the lower house of parliament -- with 60 seats reserved for women and 30 set aside for candidates under the age of 40.