Moroccans vote for new Parliament with eye on social concerns

Rising unemployment, higher prices and inequality were also central to campaign messaging, as were efforts to encourage voting. A woman casts her vote inside a polling station during the legislative elections in Rabat, Morocco, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy) (AFP) — Moroccans began voting for a new Parliament Wednesday, with unemployment and inequality on their minds even as some expressed distrust of the parties vying for power. Nearly 16 million Moroccans are registered to elect 395 members of the House of Representatives. But turnout will be a key test amid widespread voter disillusionment, especially among young people. Though only 4% of registered voters are ages 18 to 24, issues affecting young people have drawn attention, particularly after a recent mass rush of young Moroccans into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta and last year’s Gen Z protest movement demanding better health care and education. Rising unemployment, higher prices and inequality were also central to campaign messaging, as were efforts to encourage voting. As of noon, turnout stood at 11.3%, according to official figures. Polls were due to close at 7 p.m. On the campaign trail, parties promised to improve quality of life in Morocco. But many people, including older voters, said they would not vote. “I’m not going to vote because I have lost all faith in the political class,” Majda Bakatir told AFP in Rabat. “We want our country to move forward, but politicians do not seem to care about our problems regarding healthcare, education, and purchasing power,” added Bakatir, 59. Others, including 55-year-old Karim Ennaciri, voted in the hope that the election would bring change. “This will allow us to see if there’s a renewal within the parties,” he said. Polls opened at 8 a.m., and preliminary results were expected overnight. Morocco’s prime minister is appointed by the king from the party that wins the most seats. The prime minister then forms a government for a five-year term, but the monarch retains control of major policy decisions. Opinion polls are banned under Morocco’s electoral law, but observers consider the National Rally of Independents, or RNI, which heads the governing coalition, among the favorites. Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch led his party’s campaign, although he stepped down as head of the RNI, ruling him out of leading the next government if his party wins the most seats. Akhannouch has defended his government’s record, including an expansion of social security coverage, and promised the RNI would do more if reelected. “We have done quite important work within the government,” he said at a recent rally. “We carried out reforms in education and health, we increased salaries … we were there when (Moroccans) needed us.” The wealthy businessman has nevertheless faced repeated accusations of conflicts of interest involving his company Afriquia, Morocco’s leading fuel distributor. Akhannouch also faced widespread calls for his resignation during the youth-led Gen Z protests. The RNI’s main rival is the Authenticity and Modernity Party, or PAM. The two center-right parties are ideologically close and were founded by figures with ties to the royal palace. The PAM has recruited a popular figure, Budget Minister Fouzi Lekjaa, better known for his role as head of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation. “We want to make young people a force capable of bringing added value rather than being left behind,” Lekjaa recently said, pledging higher wages and improved purchasing power. But the PAM has no clear leader. Another prominent figure is Fatima Ezzahra Mansouri, the minister for territorial planning and mayor of Marrakesh, who could become the country’s first woman prime minister. The PAM has also been hit by a corruption scandal. In June, a court sentenced two senior party figures to 10 and 12 years in prison, respectively, in a major drug-trafficking case involving a kingpin dubbed the “Escobar of the Sahara.” Also in contenti