Morocco reports lower turnout in parliamentary elections

By Ahmed Eljechtimi

RABAT, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Morocco's interior ‌ministry reported a lower ​turnout of 38.02% ​in the country's parliamentary election on Wednesday, down from 50% in the last vote in 2021.

The vote will shape the government overseeing the final stages of a $20-billion push to prepare for the 2030 World Cup, and projects ‌to direct economic gains towards the country's disenchanted youth.

The turnout rate is seen as a barometer for ⁠citizens' engagement and trust in elected institutions.

About 27 million Moroccans are of voting age, but only 15.8 million are registered on the electoral lists, a drop ‌of about 12% from 2021.

The vote took ‌place in normal conditions save "some very isolated cases," the interior ministry said in a statement, adding that votes are being counted.

The parliamentary poll is not expected to fundamentally alter the balance of power in Morocco, where the king retains sweeping powers over ​policy direction, defence and foreign affairs.

But the next parliament will be tasked with implementing initiatives increasingly aimed at addressing youth discontent, highlighted by a mass border rush on the Spanish enclave of Ceuta and deadly Gen-Z-led protests last year.

The current government ⁠is made up of three parties – including two founded by men close to the palace – which unseated a moderate Islamist party that came to power a decade earlier after ​the 2011 Arab Spring protests.

Those demonstrations led the king to devolve more powers to an elected parliament before later reasserting control over areas such as foreign affairs and the interior ministry.

Under a constitution adopted ​in 2011, the king appoints the prime minister from the party that ‌wins the highest share of parliament's 395 seats.

The prime minister must then negotiate a coalition before submitting a list of cabinet members for royal approval.

SPENDING PLANS

The two biggest parties in the current parliament, the ⁠ruling National Rally of Independents (RNI) and the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), have each pledged to create about 1 million jobs over the next five-year term, and made promises to improve housing, wages and hospitals.

The two govern together in a coalition but have traded blame during the campaign over a ⁠failure to halt the rise of food prices and other policy shortcomings.

Because of the disagreements, PAM leaders have ruled out joining another coalition with RNI ​if they come first.

Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, a billionaire businessman who has led the government since 2021, is not standing again after stepping down as RNI leader this year.

Fouzi Lekjaa, the budget minister and president of Morocco's football federation and chairman of the organising committee for the 2030 World Cup ‌soccer finals, joined PAM's leadership weeks before the election.

Morocco is pouring investments into stadiums, railways and other infrastructure before the World Cup, which it will co-host with Spain and Portugal, and aims ‌to double economic output per capita by 2035.

The International Monetary Fund has estimated the planned spending at around 190 billion dirhams, or around $20 billion, amounting ⁠to nearly 12% of its gross domestic product in ‌2024.

Other parties in contention include the ruling ​nationalist, conservative-leaning Istiqlal party (PI), the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), which suffered a crushing defeat in the last vote, and a number of leftist parties.

(Reporting by Ahmed El Jechtimi, Editing by Alexander Dziadosz, Timothy Heritage ‌and Jonathan Spicer )

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