2026 Moroccan general election

2026 Moroccan general election
23 September 2026
All 395 seats in the House of Representatives
198 seats needed for a majority
Party Leader Current seats
RNI Mohamed Chaouki[1] 102
PAM Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri 87
Istiqlal Nizar Baraka 81
USFP Driss Lachgar 34
MP Mohamed Ouzzine 28
PPS Nabil Benabdallah 22
UC Mohamed Joudar 18
PJD Abdelilah Benkirane 13
MDS Abdessamad Archane 5
FFD Mustapha Benali 3
FGD Abdessalam Laâziz 1
PSU Jamal El Asri 1
Incumbent Prime Minister
Aziz Akhannouch
RNI

General elections are scheduled to be held in Morocco on 23 September 2026 to elect 395 members of the House of Representatives.[2][3]

Background

After the 2021 elections, Aziz Akhannouch was nominated as Prime Minister by King Mohammed VI to form a new government.[4][5] On 22 September, it was announced that Akhannouch's National Rally of Independents, the Istiqlal Party, and the Authenticity and Modernity Party had reached a coalition agreement.[6] The new government took office on 7 October.[7]

Electoral system

Morocco has a bicameral legislature whose two chambers are the House of Councillors and the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives has 395 seats, which are elected by proportional representation and consist of two tiers: 305 seats are elected from 92 multi-member local constituencies (of two to six seats) and the remaining 90 are elected from twelve constituencies based on the Regions of Morocco (of 3 to 12 seats). Of these 90 seats, a minimum of one third must be women, who must also be the first and second candidates on each list.[8][9]

The election will be held under a new 2021 law which saw the removal of the electoral threshold, which was previously at 6% for local lists and at 3% for the national lists which were replaced by the regional ones.[10] The new law calculates the allocations of seats based on the number of registered voters, rather than the number of those who actually cast a ballot.[11] This means the party that received the largest number of votes in the district will not be able to obtain more than one electoral seat.[10] All citizens who were at least 18 years old, or have reached the age of 18 are eligible to vote.

Although Moroccans living abroad are constitutionally eligible to vote, there is no practical mechanism by which they can do so, other than travelling to Morocco in person, or granting power of attorney to a relative or acquaintance to vote on their behalf. In 2021, the Istiqlal Party proposed an amendment to allow members of the Moroccan diaspora to vote from their residence countries, but it was rejected by a parliamentary majority.[12] According to Moroccan analyst Rachid Achachi, the absence of overseas voting access stems primarily from "fear of the unknown", as Moroccans living abroad are "difficult to predict" and are less susceptible to traditional methods of influence employed by political parties, including demagogic rhetoric, patronage networks and vote buying.[13]

Opinion polls

Opinion polls show general public distrust in the Moroccan government in 2026.[14][15]

References

  1. ↑ "Mohamed Chaouki officiellement élu à la tête du RNI". lopinion.ma (in French).
  2. ↑ "Morocco Sets September 23 as Date for Parliamentary Elections". Morocco World News. 2026-03-05. Retrieved 2026-03-14.
  3. ↑ "Morocco's legislative elections set for September 23". APAnews - African Press Agency. 2026-03-05. Retrieved 2026-03-14.
  4. ↑ "Le Roi Mohammed VI nomme Aziz Akhannouch chef du gouvernement". Medias24 (in French). 10 September 2021. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  5. ↑ "Mohammed VI nomme Aziz Akhannouch Chef de gouvernement". Telquel (in French). Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  6. ↑ "Morocco: 3 parties agree to form new coalition government". AP NEWS. 2021-09-22. Retrieved 2021-09-29.
  7. ↑ "SM le Roi préside la cérémonie de nomination des membres du nouveau gouvernement". MAP Express. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
  8. ↑ Élections 2021 : comment le quotient électoral rebattra les cartes
  9. ↑ Élections du 8 septembre : La révision à la hausse de la représentativité féminine, un des principaux amendements de la nouvelle loi électorale
  10. 1 2 "Morocco goes to polls to elect parliament under controversial new law". The New Arab. 8 September 2021. Archived from the original on 9 September 2021.
  11. ↑ "Ballot counting under way in Morocco vote overshadowed by apathy". Archived from the original on 8 September 2021.
  12. ↑ "Au Parlement, la question du vote des Marocains résidant à l'étranger à nouveau soulevée". 2025-06-16. Retrieved 2026-05-25.
  13. ↑ "Le vote des Marocains du monde: entre craintes et opportunités". 2025-05-22. Retrieved 2026-05-25.
  14. ↑ "Al-Estiklal Newspaper". alestiklal.net. 2026. Retrieved 2026-07-30.
  15. ↑ Sebti, Boujemâa (2026-07-23). "Législatives 2026 : le rapport de forces est en train de se recomposer". Médias24 - Numéro un de l'information économique marocaine (in French). Retrieved 2026-07-30.
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