Polling stations across Morocco closed their doors Wednesday evening, bringing an end to a pivotal day of voting in the Kingdom’s legislative elections. The closure immediately triggered the vote-counting phase, carried out inside the polling stations themselves and witnessed by representatives of the competing electoral lists and candidates.
This twelfth legislative election since independence mobilized more than 15.8 million registered voters, tasked with choosing the 395 members of the House of Representatives. Twenty-seven political parties contested the vote through 1,850 lists, fielding 7,288 candidates in total, including roughly 2,658 women — about 36.5 percent of all contenders, a notable rise compared with previous election cycles.
Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. and stayed open until 7 p.m., with turnout climbing steadily throughout the day. The Interior Ministry reported a participation rate of 11.34 percent by midday, a figure that rose to 28.05 percent by around 5 p.m., reflecting a stronger flow of voters in the late afternoon as many cast ballots after finishing work.
On the ground, the vote unfolded largely without incident, according to the more than 3,000 observers deployed by civil society organizations tasked with monitoring the process and safeguarding its transparency. Authorities also recorded a marked drop in the number of complaints compared with the 2021 election, an improvement officials linked partly to new legal provisions targeting disinformation and manipulated content circulated on social media during the campaign period.
Counting began immediately after the polls closed and is expected to continue into the evening under standard legal procedures, followed by the compilation of results station by station and then constituency by constituency. Initial trends are expected within hours, while the announcement of final, validated results is anticipated over the coming days once the competent authorities complete their review.
The vote comes at a symbolically charged moment for Morocco, just a few years ahead of the 2030 World Cup the country will co-host, with many voters saying they expect the incoming government to deliver tangible answers on jobs, purchasing power and infrastructure.
