Moroccan General Elections
AS OF 2026-09-28 · 12 CONTESTS · general election, 23 September 2026 · WIKIPEDIA, NATIONAL ELECTORAL AUTHORITIES
Next election · general election, expected 2031 · Capital · Rabat in the metro rankings →
Where the chamber sits · 4.9 of 10, left to right, spread 1.2 →
Every House of Representatives election in Morocco from 1963 to 2021, newest first. A minority of seats went to communal councillors and professional colleges rather than direct vote through 1993; the king has appointed his prime minister from the party that won the most votes since the 2011 constitution, most recently Aziz Akhannouch's National Rally of Independents in 2021. The 2026 general election is set for 23 September 2026.
Source: Wikipedia election articles · as of 2026-09-28
House seats
395
305 local, 90 on regional lists since 2021
Elections since 1963
12
2021 turnout
50.35%
RNI's Aziz Akhannouch took the premiership
Latest
2026
Authenticity and Modernity Party largest · Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri
The chronology
Every House of Representatives election since Morocco's first in 1963, newest first. The 1970-1993 rows carry a caveat for the seats chosen by communal councillors and professional colleges rather than direct vote; 1970 and 1977 give no vote count at all, only seats, because the source states none.
The RNI government, and its verdict · 2026
Aziz Akhannouch's RNI governed from 2021 in coalition with PAM and Istiqlal, and the three parties spent the months before the 2026 election competing openly with one another. The verdict went against the senior partner: RNI lost 36 seats, PAM overtook it to finish first, and PJD recovered from 13 seats to 54 after youth-led protests over health, education and jobs. Turnout fell to 38%, the lowest in the series.
Two PJD governments · 2016-2021
PJD topped the poll again in 2016, but a coalition deadlock between Benkirane and RNI's Aziz Akhannouch left Morocco without a government for months; the king dismissed Benkirane in March 2017 and installed his own party colleague Saadeddine Othmani, whose cabinet was not sworn in until 5 April. Five years later PJD's seat count collapsed from 125 to 13 as Akhannouch's RNI took first place in 2021, the sharpest reversal in the series.
National Rally of Independents 102Authenticity and Modernity Party 87Istiqlal Party 81
Justice and Development Party 125Authenticity and Modernity Party 102Istiqlal Party 46
The PJD's rise, and 2011's reform · 2007-2011
PJD topped the vote in 2007 but Istiqlal still formed the government on more seats; a BBC correspondent at the time accused the government of redrawing constituencies to keep PJD from winning outright. The 2011 constitution, adopted after protests during the Arab Spring, required the king to appoint his prime minister from the party that had actually won the most votes, and Abdelilah Benkirane's PJD victory that November was the first test of the new rule.
Justice and Development Party 107Istiqlal Party 60National Rally of Independents 52others 4
Istiqlal Party 52Justice and Development Party 46Popular Movement 41others 40
A fully elected house again · 1997-2002
The 1997 House was the first since 1963 filled entirely by direct vote, and the Socialist Union of Popular Forces topped it, with Abderrahmane Youssoufi becoming prime minister. The Justice and Development Party won its first seats in 2002, entering third with 42, a result the source calls strong gains for an Islamist party even as USFP's outgoing government kept its plurality.
Socialist Union of Popular Forces 50Istiqlal Party 48Justice and Development Party 42
Socialist Union of Popular Forces 57Constitutional Union 50National Rally of Independents 46
A house shared with the colleges · 1970-1993
A new constitution adopted by referendum in July 1970 gave the House of Representatives a directly elected majority and an indirect minority chosen by communal councillors and by professional colleges representing agriculture, commerce, artisans and trade unions. Istiqlal and the Union of Popular Forces fared poorly under it for two decades before the 1993 election, held after another new constitution, finally split seats close to evenly among several parties.
Constitutional Union 54Socialist Union of Popular Forces 52Istiqlal Party 52others 7
Constitutional Union 83National Rally of Independents 61Popular Movement 47others 10
Independents 141Istiqlal 51MP 44
Independents 159MP 60PPS 10
The founding vote, and its interruption · 1963
Morocco's first House of Representatives was elected in 1963 under the newly independent kingdom's first constitution, three-quarters of it by direct vote and the rest by an indirectly chosen House of Councillors. King Hassan II dissolved parliament in 1965 and ruled by decree for five years before a new constitution brought the next election in 1970.
The long arc in charts
Hover any point for the exact figure.
Turnout
From a high of 82.36% in 1977 to a low of 37.00% in 2007, before recovering to 50.35% in the most recent, 2021 election.
The largest party's vote share
PJD's 27.14% in 2016 is the highest on record where a vote share was recorded at all; 1970 and 1977 print no vote share for any party, only seats.
Records & superlatives
Highest turnout
82.4%
1977, of the elections with a recorded figure
Lowest turnout
37.0%
2007
Highest vote share
34.8%
Front for the Defence of Constitutional Institutions, 1963
Most seats won
159
Independents, 1970
Highest turnout
82.36%
The highest turnout on record for a Moroccan general election.
Lowest turnout
37.00%
PJD topped the vote that year but Istiqlal still formed the government on more seats.
Largest single-party mandate
125 of 395 seats
PJD's second consecutive first-place finish, before its 2021 collapse to 13 seats.
Sharpest reversal
125 seats to 13
PJD's seat count fell by 112 between 2016 and 2021 as RNI took first place.
How Moroccan elections work
A house shared with the colleges, 1970-1993
For six elections a majority of seats went to direct vote and the rest to communal councillors and professional colleges representing agriculture, commerce, artisans and trade unions, an arrangement dropped for the fully direct 1997 election.
A national list alongside the local vote
Since 2002 a proportional national list has topped up the larger, directly elected local tier; by 2011 two thirds of its 90 seats were reserved for women and the rest for men under 40. A 2021 law replaced the national list with twelve regional lists and removed the vote-share threshold that had stood at 6% locally and 3% nationally.
The king appoints from the largest party
The 2011 constitution, adopted after Arab Spring protests, requires the king to name his prime minister from the party that won the most votes, ending the palace's freer hand in choosing governments before then.
A landslide reversal in 2021
PJD's seat count fell from 125 to 13 between 2016 and 2021 as RNI, PAM and Istiqlal took the top three places, the sharpest single swing in the series.