The PAM emerged as the largest party in the House of Representatives with 97 seats as Morocco’s political pecking order was shaken up in Wednesday’s legislative elections, with the RNI losing more than a third of its parliamentary strength and the PJD making a sharp comeback five years after its 2021 rout.
Provisional results announced by Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit early Thursday put PAM 31 seats clear of the RNI, which slipped to second place with 66 seats.
Istiqlal was breathing down its neck with 65.
The numbers turn the 2021 order on its head. The RNI had swept that election with 102 seats, followed by PAM with 87 and Istiqlal with 81. This time, PAM has added 10 seats while its two partners in the outgoing government have both lost ground: 36 seats for the RNI and 16 for Istiqlal.
But the night’s biggest recovery came further down the table.
The PJD, reduced to just 13 MPs in its bruising 2021 defeat, returned with 54 seats—a gain of 41 that lifts it from eighth place five years ago to fourth in the provisional standings. Its 2021 tally had marked a spectacular reversal for a party that entered that election at the head of government.
The rebound still leaves the PJD well behind PAM and 12 seats short of the RNI. But it puts the party back among the larger blocs in the House after five years with a parliamentary contingent of only 13.
RNI gives up 36 seats
For the RNI, the arithmetic runs the other way. The party that entered the outgoing House with 102 MPs is provisionally down to 66, surrendering the first place it secured in 2021. PAM, by contrast, needed a comparatively modest gain—from 87 to 97—to move past it.
Istiqlal has also taken a hit, falling from 81 seats to 65. That leaves just one seat separating it from the RNI in the provisional count.
Taken together, the three parties that formed the outgoing government held 270 seats after the 2021 election. On Wednesday’s provisional numbers, their combined tally is 228—a loss of 42 seats.
The Popular Movement edged up from 28 seats in 2021 to 29, while the USFP fell from 34 to 26. The PPS dropped from 22 to 19 and the Constitutional Union from 18 to 17.
The MDS, meanwhile, improved on its five-seat showing in 2021 to take eight seats provisionally. The Left Alliance was also allotted eight.
The Democratic Forces Front won two seats, while the Equity Party took two. The Neo-Democrats Party and the Unity and Democracy Party secured one seat each.
Fewer voters turn out
The reshuffling in Parliament came with another number that stood out from the night: turnout.
Laftit put participation at 38.02 percent nationwide, sharply below the level recorded five years ago.
Turnout in the September 2021 legislative election was around 50pc, when the RNI won 102 of the House’s 395 seats and the PJD crashed from government to an opposition bloc of 13 MPs.
Wednesday’s provisional allocation accounts for all 395 seats in the House.
The final results have yet to be announced.
