Elections in Morocco

Elections in Morocco are held on a national level for the legislature. Parliament has two chambers. The Assembly of Representatives of Morocco (Majlis AL-Nuwab/Assemblée des Répresentants) has 325 members elected for a five-year term, 295 elected in multi-seat constituencies and 30 in national lists consisting only of women. The Assembly of Councillors (Majlis al-Mustasharin) has 120 members, elected for a six-year term, elected by local councils (162 seats), professional chambers (91 seats) and wage-earners (27 seats).

Morocco has had a multi-party system since independence in 1955, with numerous parties in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments. Since Morocco considers Western Sahara as part of its territory and administers large parts of it, the elections are also held there.

Result in history

1963 Moroccan general election

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	Front for the Defence of Constitutional Institutions	1,159,932	34.78	69
	Istiqlal Party	1,000,506	30.00	41
	National Union of Popular Forces	751,056	22.52	28
	Moroccan Communist Party	2,345	0.07	0
	Independents	421,479	12.64	6
Total		3,335,318	100.00	144

Latest election

Party		Regional lists			Local lists			Total seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	National Rally of Independents	2,088,548	27.58	16	2,099,036	27.69	86	102
	Authenticity and Modernity Party	1,385,230	18.30	12	1,400,122	18.47	75	87
	Istiqlal Party	1,267,866	16.74	13	1,278,420	16.87	68	81
	Socialist Union of Popular Forces	590,215	7.80	11	598,293	7.89	23	34
	Popular Movement (Morocco)	528,261	6.98	8	534,292	7.05	20	28
	Constitutional Union (Morocco)	423,067	5.59	5	418,945	5.53	13	18
	Party of Progress and Socialism	389,802	5.15	10	378,603	5.00	12	22
	Justice and Development Party (Morocco)	325,337	4.30	9	322,758	4.26	4	13
	Democratic and Social Movement (Morocco)	138,648	1.83	2	126,399	1.67	3	5
	Federation of the Democratic Left	83,554	1.10	1	83,130	1.10	0	1
	Unified Socialist Party (Morocco)	69,678	0.92	1	60,313	0.80	0	1
	Front of Democratic Forces	64,317	0.85	2	70,218	0.93	1	3
	New Democrats Party	31,258	0.41	0	32,295	0.43	0	0
	Environment and Sustainable Development Party	23,813	0.31	0	22,959	0.30	0	0
	Social Centre Party	17,886	0.24	0	11,968	0.16	0	0
	Hope Party (Morocco)	17,855	0.24	0	17,262	0.23	0	0
	Equity Party	17,500	0.23	0	16,358	0.22	0	0
	Moroccan Liberal Party	17,116	0.23	0	18,884	0.25	0	0
	Unity and Democracy Party (Morocco)	16,969	0.22	0	12,841	0.17	0	0
	Moroccan Greens Party	12,733	0.17	0	15,639	0.21	0	0
	Democratic Independence Party	12,448	0.16	0	8,328	0.11	0	0
	Party of Liberty and Social Justice	10,299	0.14	0	7,719	0.10	0	0
	Action Party (Morocco)	9,022	0.12	0	6,373	0.08	0	0
	Reform and Development Party (Morocco)	7,724	0.10	0	9,891	0.13	0	0
	Renaissance Party	6,679	0.09	0	5,730	0.08	0	0
	Democratic Society Party	5,883	0.08	0	3,885	0.05	0	0
	Party of Renaissance and Virtue	5,208	0.07	0	8,181	0.11	0	0
	National Democratic Party (Morocco)	4,707	0.06	0	1,682	0.02	0	0
	Moroccan Union for Democracy	0	0.00	0	7,983	0.11	0	0
	Democratic Agreement Party	0	0.00	0	998	0.01	0	0
Total		7,571,623	100.00	90	7,579,505	100.00	305	395

2006 fraud affair

In October 2006, as many as 67 people were arrested for election fraud allegations related to the September 8, 2006 polls. Among them there were 17 lawmakers (12 from the Assembly of Councillors and 5 from the Assembly of Representatives). It was the first time the Moroccan government made such arrests.

See also

• Elections in Western Sahara
• Electoral calendar
• Electoral system

External links

• Adam Carr's Election Archive