Morocco's Parties Court Young Voters as Discontent Simmers Before Poll

Morocco's political parties are courting young voters with pledges of employment and affordable housing before a parliamentary election on September 23, hoping to counter widespread disaffection laid bare by last year's violent protests and a mass border rush on the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.

Uneven development and persistent economic hardship among the young are widely seen as having fuelled both episodes, even as advances in manufacturing, ports and railways have raised living standards in major cities.

The vote is Morocco's fourth since the 2011 Arab Spring protests pushed the monarchy to share more power with parliament, before the palace moved to reinforce its position. A moderate Islamist party governed for about a decade but was soundly beaten five years ago by two parties founded by figures close to the royal court.

Those parties, the National Rally of Independents (RNI) and the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), have placed youth employment at the heart of their campaigns, promising roughly one million jobs over the coming parliamentary term. They have also highlighted about $20 billion in infrastructure investment tied to the 2030 World Cup, which Morocco will co-host with Spain and Portugal, and have streamed rallies on social media to reach younger audiences.

"We reject the idea that young people simply want an easy life," the PAM's campaign manifesto says, listing housing, a regular income and "dignified work" as priorities.

Analysts say the difficulty of drawing in young voters was evident in the deadly, Gen-Z-led protests last year and in the July border surge on Ceuta. Mohamed Masbah, head of the Moroccan Institute for Policy Analysis, described the Ceuta rush as "a new form of social protest in which many citizens demonstrated a physical exit from Moroccan politics altogether."

Official figures show that 18- to 24-year-olds make up about 12% of the population but only around 3% of registered voters. A survey published in March by the research nonprofit Afrobarometer found that just one third of Moroccans aged 18 to 35 trust parliament, the prime minister or political parties.

Young voters say they are discouraged by the impression that elections merely shift the balance between parties with little ideological distance between them, without producing major policy change. "We keep seeing the same faces return with promises that many young voters no longer believe," said Mohamed Azzaoui, a university student who said he does not plan to vote.

Under Morocco's system, the monarchy retains control of the country's overarching policy direction, and in recent years the palace has consolidated power over key portfolios, including the foreign and interior ministries. Economist Rachid Aourraz said parties therefore compete less over the overall development model than over how to achieve the palace's objectives. In practice, Masbah said, "if everything goes well, the monarchy takes credit. If things go wrong, the government gets the blame."

Authorities have leaned heavily on their economic strategy. Already one of Africa's most diversified and industrialised economies, Morocco launched its "New Development Model" about five years ago, aiming to double gross domestic product per capita by 2035, with billions channelled into deepwater ports, phosphates, green energy and rail lines.

That progress has often failed to translate into public satisfaction. Youth unemployment stands at around 27%, the highest of any age group, and one in three young Moroccans is neither working, studying nor training, according to official statistics. The central bank has noted that stubborn unemployment and other factors have opened "a gap … between objectively measured economic performance and citizens' perceptions."