Marrakech – Morocco’s electoral law tells candidates which colors they cannot use. Posters and unofficial campaign material may not carry red or green, or combine the two. Campaigning is barred inside places of worship, schools, vocational training centers, and public administrations.

Those rules took hold Thursday, when the official campaign for the September 23 legislative elections opened at midnight, sending 27 parties into a contest for the 395 seats of the House of Representatives.

The campaign runs 13 days and closes at midnight on September 22. More than 15.8 million voters are registered – 15,801,162 by official count – split 54% men and 46% women. Urban voters make up 55% of the roll, rural voters 45%.

Deputies are chosen by direct universal suffrage under a list system, and candidacy filing, handled through an electronic platform, closed September 8. Moroccans abroad cannot vote in person where they live, but they may vote by proxy through a fully digital “E-procuration” service open since August 24.

Organic Law 53.25 governs the race. Marches, processions, and loudspeakers require written notice to local authorities at least 24 hours ahead, with route and timing specified.

On voting day, publishing or distributing campaign material – including through social media, open broadcast networks, or artificial intelligence tools – carries three to six months in prison and a fine of MAD 20,000 ($2,000) to MAD 50,000 ($5,000).

Public officials who distribute candidate material or steer voters while on duty face six months to a year and MAD 50,000 ($5,000) to MAD 100,000 ($10,000). Vote-buying through gifts or benefits is barred. Campaign accounts must reach the Court of Auditors within 90 days of the results.

More than 3,000 observers – from Moroccan non-governmental associations, the national human rights body (CNDH), and international organizations – will follow the process.

Read also: Morocco’s 2026 Elections: What Voters Need to Know Before September 23

The vote falls five years after the September 2021 elections, won by the National Rally of Independents (RNI) with 102 seats, ahead of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) with 87 and Istiqlal with 81. Those results produced the coalition government of Aziz Akhannouch, joining the three parties.

All three now aim to hold or expand their weight. The USFP, PJD, PPS, Popular Movement, and Constitutional Union are pushing to recover ground, while the left-wing PSU and FGD are running joint lists.

Economic and social strains frame the campaign. Unemployment weighs on the young, and King Mohammed VI has criticized development that runs at “two speeds.” The issue resurfaced in late July, when tens of thousands of migrants, most of them Moroccan, moved toward the occupied enclave of Ceuta.

Distrust among the young runs deep: an Afrobarometer survey from March 2026 found only about a third of Moroccans aged 18 to 35 place much trust in Parliament, local councils, or parties. Voters aged 18 to 24 are just 3% of the roll. The GenZ212 movement, which rejected any political co-optation, marks its first anniversary four days after the vote.

The PJD, led by former head of government Abdelilah Benkirane, is trying to recover from the collapse that cut it from 125 seats to 13 in 2021.

Critics question the substance of the race. A Le360 press review, citing Al Ahdath Al Maghribia, portrays an electoral campaign awash with costly social and economic promises while pointing to a widening gap between parties’ spending pledges and clear explanations of how they would finance them.

In TelQuel, political analyst Abdellah Tourabi goes further, arguing that the September 23 vote has been emptied of meaningful political and ideological competition and reduced to a “pure contest of notables.”

The head of government comes from the party that finishes first, appointed by the king to form a five-year executive, though strategic sectors remain the monarch’s domain.

The RNI seeks a second term despite Akhannouch’s withdrawal from its leadership. The PAM, founded in 2008 by Fouad Ali El Himma, counts Budget Minister and football federation head Fouzi Lekjaa among its leading figures, his profile lifted by preparations for the 2030 World Cup. Istiqlal is also chasing first place.

The 2021 elections, held under COVID-19, leaned heavily on digital tools, and the 2026 vote confirms the growing weight of social media in political communication and voter mobilization. Parties have carried much of the fight onto Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, in a country where internet subscriptions reached 41.08 million by the end of March 2026, and penetration passed 111%.