RABAT, Morocco — Moroccans headed to the polls on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, to elect a new parliament, with voters focused on employment, inequality, and the cost of living.
An agency report stated that polling stations opened at 8 am WAT (0800 GMT) and were set to close at 7 pm WAT, with preliminary results expected overnight.
Okay News reports that nearly 16 million registered voters are set to elect 395 members of the House of Representatives.
Morocco’s Prime Minister is appointed by the monarch from the party that wins the most seats to form a government for a five-year term, though the monarch retains control over major policy decisions.
The vote comes less than two months after a mass movement of young Moroccan migrants into the neighboring Spanish enclave of Ceuta heightened diplomatic tensions between Rabat and Madrid.
The National Rally of Independents (RNI), led by Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, is among the favorites alongside the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), whose figures include Budget Minister Fouzi Lekjaa and Minister for Territorial Planning Fatima Ezzahra Mansouri, while the Istiqlal party led by Equipment Minister Nizar Baraka and the opposition Justice and Development Party (PJD) led by Abdelilah Benkirane are also contesting.
“We have done quite important work within the government,” Akhannouch said at a recent rally. “We carried out reforms in education and health, we increased salaries… we were there when (Moroccans) needed us.”
“We want to make young people a force capable of bringing added value rather than being left behind,” Lekjaa recently said.
Polling stations across the country are expected to finish receiving voters at 7 pm WAT.
