The Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), a party close to the royal palace, emerged as the largest bloc in Morocco's legislative election, held on 23 September. It took 97 of the 395 seats in the House of Representatives, according to preliminary results announced by Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit.
How the chamber fell
Behind the PAM came the National Rally of Independents (RNI), with 66 seats, and Istiqlal (PI), with 65 — the two parties that led the outgoing governing coalition. The Islamist-leaning Justice and Development Party (PJD) took 54.
The rest was spread across ten smaller parties: the Popular Movement (29), the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (26), the Party of Progress and Socialism (19), the Constitutional Union (17), the Democratic and Social Movement (8), the Left Alliance (8), the Front of Democratic Forces (2), the Party of Equity (2), the Party of New Democrats (1) and the Party of Unity and Democracy (1).
None comes close on its own: a majority in the chamber requires 198 seats. Under the Moroccan constitution, King Mohammed VI appoints the head of government from the party with the most seats, which puts the PAM in charge of coalition talks.
The uncomfortable number
The hardest figure in the count is not a party one. National turnout came in at 38.08% — against roughly 50% in 2021. Of 15.8 million registered voters, about 6 million went to the polls. In other words, close to two-thirds of the electorate stayed away.
The drop comes a year after the wave of protests led by the so-called Gen Z movement, which brought young Moroccans onto the streets over unemployment, low wages and the cost of living, and which ended in deaths. The election was the first test at the ballot box after that cycle, and the abstention figure is hard to read as endorsement.
What comes next
Whatever government emerges from these talks inherits an expensive agenda. Morocco is one of the host countries of the 2030 World Cup, alongside Spain and Portugal, and preparing for the tournament — stadiums, transport, hotels — demands heavy public investment, precisely the bill last year's demonstrators wanted redirected to jobs and services.
The results are still preliminary and may be adjusted in the official consolidation.
With information from the official Maroc.ma portal (Ministry of the Interior) and Al Jazeera.
