With the dust barely settled on Wednesday’s election, the Constitutional Union and Democratic and Social Movement have already put their numbers together.
The two parties announced on Friday that their 25 MPs would sit as a single parliamentary group in the new House of Representatives, renewing an arrangement that saw them share a bench during the outgoing legislature.
UC brings 17 seats to the table and MDS eight. Neither number carries much weight on its own in a House headed by PAM with 97 seats, followed by RNI with 66, Istiqlal with 65 and PJD with 54. Together, they make for a different proposition.
A 25-member group would sit just one seat behind USFP’s 26 and ahead of PPS, which returned 19 MPs. It would also give the two parties a bigger combined parliamentary presence than either managed separately at the polls.
The pact was signed by UC secretary-general Mohamed Joudar and his MDS counterpart Abdessamad Archane after consultations between the two leaderships and their elected MPs.
UC and MDS worked under the same parliamentary roof in the outgoing House, where their MPs formed part of the Constitutional Democratic Social Group. Parliamentary records from the previous legislature list members of both parties under that group.
Friday’s agreement keeps that arrangement alive for another five years.
The parties said the formula had allowed them to coordinate legislative work while retaining their separate identities—a distinction Joudar and Archane were careful to preserve in renewing the pact.
They would remain two parties, with their own political positions and structures, but speak and work together as one parliamentary group.
“Through this decision, the two parties reaffirm their shared commitment to building on a dynamic that has proven its effectiveness, while preserving the identity and independence of each party in the service of parliamentary work and the national interest,” the two leaders said in their joint statement.
UC came out of Wednesday’s vote with 17 seats, one fewer than the 18 it won in 2021. MDS went the other way, climbing from five to eight. Between them, the partners therefore move into the new legislature with 25 MPs against 23 after the last election.
A parliamentary group gives parties a common platform from which to divide committee work, coordinate legislation and scrutiny of the government, and organize their presence in the House. Joudar and Archane said legislation, government oversight and institutional advocacy would again form the backbone of their work.
