Moroccans will go to the polls on Wednesday, 23 September, to elect all 395 members of the House of Representatives in an election that will determine the balance of power in parliament and the composition of the next government.
Under Morocco’s constitution, the King appoints the Head of Government from the party that wins the largest number of seats in the lower house.
The election will therefore determine which party leads coalition negotiations and forms the next government, although it does not decide the position of Head of State.
Morocco is a constitutional monarchy in which the elected government shares authority with the monarchy, which retains significant powers in religious, security and strategic affairs.
The outgoing governing coalition controls 270 of the chamber’s 395 seats. It is made up of the National Rally of Independents (RNI), which won 102 seats in 2021, the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) with 87 seats, and Istiqlal with 81.
The Justice and Development Party (PJD), which headed governments after the 2011 and 2016 elections, is seeking to rebuild after suffering a dramatic collapse in 2021, when its parliamentary representation fell from 125 seats to 13.
The RNI enters the election under a new party president, Mohamed Chaouki, who succeeded Head of Government Aziz Akhannouch in February.
Because the constitutional right to form a government is tied to the largest party, competition for first place among coalition partners is expected to be as significant as the broader contest between government and opposition parties.
More Than 15 Million Registered Voters
Official figures show that 15.8 million voters were registered when the electoral roll closed on 10 July.
Younger voters remain underrepresented on the register. Citizens aged 18 to 24 account for just 4 per cent of registered voters, while those aged 60 and above make up 29 per cent.
The electoral system reserves 90 regional seats for women in the House of Representatives.
Election authorities have accredited 3,006 domestic observers, alongside around 200 international and diplomatic participants. Turnout in the last parliamentary election, held in 2021, reached 50.35 per cent.
Scrutiny of Electoral Administration
Analysts are expected to focus closely on the administration of the vote.
Unlike some countries, Morocco does not operate an independent electoral commission. Elections are organised by the Ministry of the Interior, while the courts oversee electoral disputes and the National Human Rights Council chairs the observer-accreditation process.
Observers note that assessments of election credibility will depend on evidence from the conduct of the vote rather than institutional labels alone.
The election also highlights the growing role of technology in electoral administration. Registration and voter identification are conducted through digital systems, while voting, counting and result aggregation remain paper-based and manual.
Courts Have Played Oversight Role
Judicial oversight is expected to remain a key feature of the electoral process.
Morocco’s constitutional electoral jurisdiction has a history of intervening in disputed elections, including decisions in previous decades that identified electoral irregularities and organised fraud.
More recently, following the 2021 parliamentary election, the Constitutional Court annulled results in several constituencies and ordered fresh polls, reinforcing its role in reviewing electoral petitions.
One of the major questions surrounding Wednesday’s vote is whether younger citizens will participate in significant numbers.
Despite representing a larger share of the country’s population, voters aged 18 to 24 make up only a small proportion of those registered.
Analysts are watching closely to see whether political engagement among younger Moroccans translates into turnout at the ballot box.
Election observers are expected to evaluate the vote against several benchmarks once results are declared.
These include the level of political competition, voter participation, administrative neutrality, the integrity of voting and counting procedures, and the effectiveness of post-election accountability mechanisms.
The outcome will be closely watched both within Morocco and across Africa as an indicator of how one of the continent’s most established constitutional monarchies manages political competition and government formation through the electoral process.
