PAM wins big in Morocco parliament elections but falls short of majority

The next government will steer Morocco’s 2030 World Cup preparations amid public frustration over the local economy.

Morocco’s Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) has won the most seats in the country’s parliamentary election.

The monarchy-aligned PAM, part of the ruling coalition, took 97 of the 395 seats in the House of Representatives, Morocco’s lower house of parliament, according to final results announced by the Ministry of Interior on Friday.

Under Morocco’s constitution, King Mohammed VI must appoint a prime minister from the party that wins the most seats, but PAM fell well short of the 198 seats needed for an outright majority and will need to build a coalition with other parties to govern.

PAM, founded in 2008 by Fouad Ali El Himma, a friend of the king, has long been seen as a counterweight to the Justice and Development Party (PJD), a moderate Islamist party that led the government for a decade before its parliamentary seats collapsed to 13 in 2021.

The PJD staged a striking comeback this time, quadrupling its seats to 54.

A longstanding rivalry with PAM makes a coalition between the two parties unlikely. The PJD has said it will remain in opposition, leaving PAM expected to turn instead to the monarchist Istiqlal party, which came third, and other parties to form a governing majority.

PAM’s senior coalition partner, the National Rally of Independents (RNI), lost significant ground, falling from 102 seats to 66.

Only 38 percent of Morocco’s 15.8 million registered voters cast ballots, the second-lowest turnout since King Mohammed VI ascended to the throne in 1999, after a record-low 37 percent in 2007, and sharply down from the roughly 51 percent recorded in 2021.

Analysts attribute the low number to widespread disengagement following youth-led protests last year over jobs, healthcare and education, and deadly mass attempts by migrants to reach Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta in July.

Potential candidates for prime minister include PAM members Fouzi Lekjaa, head of Morocco’s football federation and budget minister, and Fatima Ezzahra Mansouri, a PAM member who currently serves as mayor of Marrakech as well as minister of national planning, urban planning, housing and urban policy. Mansouri would become Morocco’s first woman to hold the post if chosen.

The incoming government will oversee billions of dollars in investment as Morocco prepares to cohost the 2030 World Cup alongside Spain and Portugal.