Morocco: Why the Next Legislative Election Matters
The holding of Morocco’s legislative elections on September 23, as scheduled, reflects the regularity of political life in a kingdom more than twelve centuries old. At every stage of its long history, Morocco has managed to overcome difficulties, obstacles and challenges of various kinds, leading up to the reign of Mohammed VI, who ascended the throne a little over twenty-seven years ago, succeeding his father Hassan II.
The development of political life has been one of the defining features of Mohammed VI’s reign. It has gone hand in hand with the construction of modern infrastructure of such a standard that someone arriving in Morocco from Spain or Portugal hardly feels they have left two European countries for a different world…
Holding the Moroccan elections on schedule consolidates new concepts of governance based on strict respect for the Constitution approved by citizens in the 2011 popular referendum. Among its provisions is the requirement that the person tasked with forming the government come from the party that wins the largest number of seats in Parliament.
The elections will therefore open the door wide to bargaining among the parties, especially since the party that wins the largest number of seats will not be able to secure a majority allowing it to form a government without entering into alliances with other parties. This is what happened four years ago following the last elections, when the National Rally of Independents, then headed by Aziz Akhannouch, won the largest number of seats without securing an absolute majority.
The 2011 Constitution marked a new departure for political life in a kingdom that chose to develop itself without ignoring the difficulties it faces, given its lack of natural resources on the one hand and the war of attrition to which it has been subjected since 1975 on the other. It is no secret that Morocco has been facing a war of attrition waged against it by the Algerian regime since it recovered its Saharan provinces from Spanish colonial rule through the “Green March,” a peaceful march in which some 350,000 Moroccan citizens took part in response to a call by the late King Hassan II.
This war of attrition, in which the Polisario Front has been used for more than half a century, has come at a high cost. Yet it has not prevented Morocco from pursuing its development plans and diplomatic activity, which culminated in October 2025 with the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2797, recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara and that the only viable solution lies in the proposal for broad autonomy within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty.
The elections and the phase that will follow them can be regarded as part of the challenges Morocco faces, including the fight against poverty that Mohammed VI called for from the moment he ascended the throne. Such a campaign, beginning with the elimination of slums and the provision of decent housing for the citizens who live in them, remains the best means of combating terrorism and all forms of extremism.
Holding the elections on schedule will confirm that change for the better cannot take place without comprehensive political awareness at the national level. Such change takes place through the ballot box, not through the street, even when the protesters’ demands are legitimate. Aziz Akhannouch’s government did not fall in September and October last year when young members of Generation Z took to the streets to protest the standard of medical services and education, as well as rising tuition fees in private schools.
The street did not bring down the government. But there is now an urgent need for a new government headed by a figure closer to ordinary citizens and more attuned to their concerns. There is a need for someone who has demonstrated in the recent past an ability to succeed when entrusted with a specific mission.
More plainly, there is now a need for a government that understands the real reasons why mere false reports and rumors spread on social media drove thousands of young people, in the final days of last July, toward Ceuta, which is occupied by Spain in northern Morocco. These young Moroccans, whose number reached fifty thousand, believed that Ceuta, situated on Moroccan land, was a treasure trove from which they could scoop up gold and then return to their towns and villages to live in material comfort.
From this standpoint, it is important for the elections to play their required role in bringing about political change. At the same time, however, they place all political parties and their leaders before challenges imposed by Moroccan realities. This naturally includes rising to the level of the momentum of development the kingdom is experiencing, with hospitals, medical centers, ports and service facilities being built in different parts of the country. There is also a genuine awareness on the part of Mohammed VI himself of the importance of raising educational standards. The Moroccan monarch spoke openly about this issue a few years ago in a Throne Day address, explicitly discussing the level of education and the importance of mastering foreign languages, alongside Arabic, of course.
With around three weeks remaining before Morocco’s elections, the political class should absorb what the scene in Ceuta revealed about young people, unemployment, disparities and the wait for the benefits of major projects to materialize. The king himself addressed this a year ago when he stressed the need for all of Morocco to move forward at the same speed.
Most importantly, the crisis surrounding Ceuta did not turn into an internal political divide, an open confrontation with Spain, or a diplomatic rupture that would reorder Morocco’s relations with Europe. This success confirms the Moroccan state’s ability to absorb the shock, prevent its known adversaries from imposing their own interpretation of it, and then put the event back into perspective without denying its seriousness. These are among the key issues of the post-election phase, first and foremost for Morocco’s political class.