The Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) has won Morocco’s parliamentary elections, taking 97 of the 395 seats in the House of Representatives according to provisional results. The National Rally of Independents (RNI), which led the outgoing coalition, came second with 66 seats and the Istiqlal Party third with 65, interior minister Abdelouafi Laftit said on September 24.
The three parties have governed together since 2021, when the RNI came first with 102 seats. The Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), which led the government from 2011 to 2021, recovered to 54 seats from 13, a rebound linked to the return of former prime minister Abdelilah Benkirane.
Turnout in the September 23 vote was 38 per cent, the lowest since 2007. It was 50.4 per cent in 2021, when the parliamentary ballot was held alongside local and regional elections.
Some 15.8 million of about 27 million voting-age Moroccans were registered, Reuters reported. About 4 per cent of those on the rolls were aged between 18 and 24.
It was the first national vote since deadly protests called by the online youth collective GenZ 212 in September and October 2025. Outgoing Head of Government Aziz Akhannouch, whose RNI faced criticism over living costs, unemployment and alleged conflicts of interest that it denied, did not stand again after giving up the party leadership this year, according to Reuters.
Under Article 47 of the constitution, King Mohammed VI appoints the head of government from the party that comes first, though not necessarily its leader. The names most cited are housing minister Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, who coordinates PAM’s collegial leadership, and budget minister Fouzi Lekjaa, head of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, who joined the party weeks before the vote.
El Mansouri would be the first woman to lead a Moroccan government. The palace traditionally keeps foreign affairs and defence under its control whoever heads the government, the agency added.
The vote came less than two months after the mass crossing into Ceuta, the Spanish city of about 84,000 people on the north African coast. The Spanish Interior Ministry counts at least 72,000 entries on July 30-31 and the city government more than 80,000.
At least 72 people died on the Spanish side of the border according to official figures, while a European Parliament resolution adopted on September 17 put the toll at 141 or more. The Spanish Government estimated on September 18 that about 10,000 people remained in Ceuta irregularly, against at least 13,000 by the city government’s count.
Social media calls for another mass crossing on election day drew heavy security on both sides of the border. Rabat deployed water cannon in the border town of Fnideq and the frontier was calm as polls opened.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told CNN on September 22 that Madrid had asked Morocco for actions and answers because “it is also clear that its border control failed”. On September 3 he had told the Congress of Deputies there was no solid proof Rabat orchestrated the entry.
A National Police intelligence report sent to National Court judge María Tardón concluded the crossing was planned and that Moroccan gendarmes guided people towards the Tarajal breakwater. Senior police officers denied that any report had attributed the operation to a government, and the document stopped short of blaming the Moroccan Government.
Rabat has denied any responsibility. Moroccan foreign minister Nasser Bourita warned on September 10 that what he called strategic blindness in Spain would bring “chronic distrust and recurring tensions”.
Senior figures in the outgoing coalition restated Morocco’s claim to the city in the run-up to the vote. Istiqlal leader Nizar Baraka did so at the gathering where his party set out its election programme, while justice minister Abdellatif Ouahbi, who led PAM into the 2021 election, said on state television that Ceuta and Melilla, Spain’s other north African city, should return to the homeland.
Madrid summoned Moroccan ambassador Karima Benyaich on August 21 over ministerial statements it rejected, a step Sánchez made public on September 3.
The resolution, passed by 339 votes to 225, held Morocco responsible for the crossings and condemned the use of irregular migration as a tool of hybrid warfare against a member state. It called Moroccan claims over Ceuta and Melilla unacceptable and incompatible with Rabat’s status as a key partner of the European Union.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told MEPs on September 16 that the frontier at Ceuta was a European frontier because the city is Spanish.
Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albares was due to meet Bourita in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to discuss the return of those still in Ceuta. The next government in Rabat would oversee the final stages of preparations for the 2030 World Cup, which Morocco co-hosts with Spain and Portugal.
