Party Close to King Leads in Morocco’s Election as Young Voters Stay Away

Early results from legislative elections in Morocco put a party close to the country’s monarchy in the lead on Thursday. But voter turnout was the lowest in nearly two decades as disillusioned young people stayed away from the polls.

The elections, held on Wednesday, were the first since two major crises in Morocco: anti-government Gen Z protests in 2025 and the deadly mass crossing of migrants into Ceuta, an entry point to the European Union on the country’s northern coast, this summer.

Twenty-seven parties were competing for 395 seats in the lower house of Parliament, and preliminary results showed that the political status quo appeared to be largely intact. The top three parties, according to the results, are part of the coalition that has governed Morocco since 2021.

Morocco is a constitutional monarchy, and the king will appoint a prime minister from the party with the most seats. Because no single party won an outright majority, parties will now work to form a coalition.

The election was dominated by frustration with unemployment and poor public services, as well as concern over people leaving Morocco in search of better economic opportunities. Voter turnout was the lowest since 2007, at 38 percent, according to figures released by the interior ministry.

The Authenticity and Modernity Party, a centrist party, took an early lead by winning 97 seats. Part of the current governing coalition, it was founded by a childhood friend and close adviser to the king.

One of the most likely contenders for prime minister is Fouzi Lekjaa, a member of that party who is currently budget minister and the president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation. King Mohammed VI is betting that Morocco’s co-hosting of the 2030 soccer World Cup will boost the country’s economy and image.

The National Rally of Independents, a member of the governing coalition and the party of the outgoing prime minister, secured 66 seats, suffering losses. A third coalition party, the Independence Party, won 65 seats, while the Justice and Development Party, an Islamist party that lost power in 2021, increased its share of seats from 13 to 54.

The interior ministry said voting had proceeded normally, apart from isolated incidents. But the Left Alliance, a small left-wing party, and the Moroccan Association for Human Rights said they had documented irregularities at several polling stations. Prosecutors said on Wednesday that they had opened two investigations in Tangier, one involving a man who was detained with a bag containing ballots at a school being used as a polling center.

Young voters in Morocco appeared especially disenchanted by the election. People aged 18 to 24 make up 12 percent of the population but just 4 percent of the country’s 15.8 million registered voters.

“For me, it is difficult to believe that these elections can bring meaningful institutional change,” said Ayoub Boudad, a 31-year-old filmmaker who did not vote. “When major priorities seem to be decided far away from elected institutions, elections can lose their meaning in the eyes of a generation.”

Morocco’s economy grew by a fairly robust 4.9 percent last year, driven in part by World Cup spending, according to figures from the World Bank. But unemployment is high — 13 percent last year — and about one-third of young Moroccans are jobless.

In 2025, frustrations spilled out into widespread Gen Z protests that were met with a police crackdown. Then, this summer, more than 70,000 migrants rushed into Ceuta, a tiny Spanish exclave squeezed between Morocco and the Mediterranean, seeking jobs and better lives.

Young people have also expressed dissatisfaction with their leaders’ willingness to normalize relations with Israel. Under the outgoing government, Morocco and Israel agreed to open embassies in their respective countries — a move that many Moroccans saw as an affront to their solidarity with Palestinians.