Morocco’s Election Campaign Becomes a Bidding War of Billion-Dollar Promises

MOROCCO · ELECTIONS

Two weeks before Moroccans vote, the country’s election campaign has turned into an auction. On Tuesday the Left Alliance presented 431 fully costed measures with a total price tag of half a trillion dirhams — the largest, but not the only, nine-figure promise of a campaign in which every major party now publishes a bill for its ambitions.

What the Left Alliance is promising

The Left Alliance brings together the Democratic Left Federation (known by its French initials, FGD), a coalition of small left-wing parties led by Abdessalam Aziz, and the Unified Socialist Party (PSU), led by Jamal El Asri. The two parties formed the alliance in June and presented their joint programme in Casablanca on Tuesday under the slogan “Dignity first — for a democratic, productive and just Morocco.”

The platform is a five-year roadmap running from 2027 to 2031, with 431 measures and a total envelope of MAD 500 billion (about US$53 billion). Its centrepieces are social: a unified minimum wage of MAD 5,000 (about US$530) net per month by 2029 across agricultural and non-agricultural sectors; a birth bonus of MAD 5,000 (about US$530) for mothers giving birth in public hospitals; a monthly allowance of MAD 1,500 (about US$160) for unemployed graduates, people with disabilities and pensioners without pensions; and an increase in direct social support to MAD 39 billion (about US$4.1 billion) a year.

On education and health — described as absolute priorities — the alliance earmarks MAD 70.9 billion (about US$7.5 billion) for schools and universities and MAD 80.2 billion (about US$8.5 billion) for public health. It also proposes buying the assets of the mothballed Samir oil refinery to restore domestic fuel production, which it estimates could lower fuel prices by MAD 3 to 5 (about US$0.30 to 0.55) per litre.

The alliance says it would finance the programme mainly through what it calls fiscal justice rather than new debt: raising the tax burden to 25.8 percent of gross domestic product, cutting unjustified tax breaks by about 39 percent, bringing treasury debt down to 63 percent of GDP and holding the budget deficit between 3.8 and 4 percent.

The numbers war

What makes this campaign unusual for Morocco is not the generosity of the promises but the fact that they come with price tags. The Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) — a liberal-leaning party founded in 2008, now the largest opposition bloc in parliament with 87 seats, led by Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri — has promised at least one million net jobs by 2031 and costed its platform at MAD 350 billion (about US$37 billion) in additional cumulative spending over five years, roughly MAD 70 billion (about US$7.4 billion) per year. PAM says most of that would come from higher revenue generated by faster growth, targeting an average of 5 percent a year.

The Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS) — the successor to Morocco’s historic communist party, led by Nabil Benabdallah and currently holding 22 seats — went further. It says its programme requires MAD 575 billion (about US$61 billion) in additional spending over five years, but claims this would be covered by MAD 622 billion (about US$66 billion) in new revenue, leaving a surplus of about MAD 47 billion (about US$5 billion). The party concedes the arithmetic is a projection: it says each measure carries a specified cost, financing source and deadline, but has not detailed how the additional revenue would be raised.

The governing parties, led by Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch’s National Rally of Independents (RNI), which holds 102 of the 395 seats, have so far campaigned on their record rather than on a single headline figure. Whether the costed-manifesto race pressures them into publishing their own consolidated number is one of the questions of the final fortnight.

The mood behind the bidding

The context for the auction is a restless electorate. Aziz, opening the Left Alliance’s presentation, recalled that transport stations had filled with young Moroccans trying to leave the country — a reference to the recent surge in youth attempts to reach the Spanish enclave of Ceuta — and argued they were emigrating because they no longer trusted their country’s future. Drought, the cost of living and a series of protests by teachers, medical students and other professional groups have shaped the campaign.

Morocco’s elections are managed contests in a monarchy where King Mohammed VI holds ultimate authority and appoints the prime minister from the winning party. But the parliamentary competition on 23 September is real: all 395 seats in the House of Representatives are at stake, 198 are needed for a majority, and the outcome determines the government’s direction for five years. Turnout, which fell sharply in 2021, is the number the parties fear most.

Who is watching

The national committee responsible for accrediting election observers has approved 3,006 observers — from non-governmental organisations, the National Human Rights Council (CNDH) and international bodies — to monitor the various stages of the vote, according to Moroccan media. A separate civil-society coalition, the Collective for Associative Election Observation, says it will deploy about 1,700 independent observers of its own.

Their reports will matter. A campaign fought over costed programmes gives observers — and voters — an unusually concrete benchmark against which to measure whoever forms the next government.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Morocco World News — Left Alliance launches election program of 431 measures
• Hespress English — PPS election program proposes MAD 575 billion (about US$61 billion) in additional spending
• Barlaman Today — PAM sets out MAD 350 billion (about US$37 billion) financing plan
• Yabiladi — Morocco accredits more than 3,000 observers for 2026 elections
• Hespress English — Election coalition deploys 1,700 observers

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