Moroccan centrist party tops parliament vote after boost from football chief

A liberal-centrist party founded ‌by ​an adviser to Morocco's king came out on top in parliamentary elections after a late boost from the man credited with leading the national football team to global fame, early results showed on Thursday. The vote is not expected to fundamentally change the political balance in the country, a constitutional ‌monarchy where the king retains sweeping powers over foreign policy, defence and other key portfolios.

But the incoming parliament will shape the government overseeing the last stages of a $20-billion push to get ready for the 2030 World Cup, which Morocco will co-host with Portugal and Spain. It will also implement economic policies aimed at addressing widespread youth discontent, an issue highlighted by a mass border rush on the Spanish enclave of Ceuta this summer ‌and deadly Gen-Z-led protests last year.

The Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) — which was the second largest member in the outgoing coalition — moved up to the top spot, bolstered by the recruitment of Fouzi Lekjaa, Morocco's ‌football federation chief and two-time government budget manager, who joined weeks before the vote. Lekjaa is widely seen as the driving force behind the rise of Morocco's football team to international fame, including a historic run to the semi-finals in the 2022 World Cup, and overseeing investments in 2030 World Cup infrastructure.

He is now seen as a strong potential candidate for prime minister, who is selected by the king from the winning party. PAM's current leader, Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, is another potential candidate ⁠for head of ​government, which would make her the second woman to ⁠hold such a position in an Arab country, after Tunisia’s Najla Bouden.

RULING OUT A COALITION PAM was created in 2008 by an adviser to the king and has since positioned itself as a counterweight to the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) by ⁠advocating social modernisation and secular-leaning views.

The party's coalition partners in the current government, the National Rally of Independents (RNI), lost its leading position and came second in the vote, according to the provisional tally. PAM has ruled out partnering with them ​again. The two have traded blame over policy shortcomings including a failure to halt rises in food prices.

Outgoing Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, a billionaire businessman who has led the government coalition ⁠since 2021, is not standing again after stepping down as RNI leader this year. PAM campaigned on promises of spending $37 billion to create 1 million new jobs and make new investments in healthcare, education, social protection and better wages.

The party took 97 seats ⁠in ​the 395-seat parliament — up from the 87 it secured in the last vote in 2021 — ahead of the RNI with 66, while the conservative nationalist Istiqlal Party secured 65 seats, according to the results, delivered by Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit in a news briefing. The PJD rebounded to 54 seats, from only 13 in the previous election, buoyed by the return of its former prime minister Abdelilah Benkirane.

The ⁠Islamist party headed Morocco's government for two five-year terms after a new constitution was adopted in 2011 in the wake of the "Arab Spring" protests, which led Morocco's monarchy to share more power with parliament, ⁠but lost heavily in the last election. Three leftist parties ⁠took smaller shares of the seats.

Turnout, closely watched as an indicator of trust in elected institutions, fell to about 38% from around 50% in the previous elections five years ago, when the moderate Islamist PJD party in power for a decade was dealt a crushing defeat. About 27 million Moroccans ‌are of voting age, but only ‌15.8 million are registered to vote, a drop of about 12% from the 2021 election.