Legislative Elections: Digital Under Control

The commitment is firm. Admittedly, there will always be some parties who will find fault, but all the ingredients are coming together for the 2026 legislative elections to be held under the best possible conditions. In the Interior Committee, as well as during the plenary session, Minister Abdelouafi Laftit, speaking on behalf of the government, could not have been clearer.

A first challenge has just been overcome, namely the deadlines for establishing the legal framework governing the upcoming deadlines. That is, everything must be finalized before the end of the current year.

Indeed, already, and after intensive work, particularly within the Interior Committee of the House of Representatives, the three amending electoral laws forming this framework have successfully passed the first chamber.

The innovations are all the more numerous and important because they aim to address certain shortcomings, adapting the legal framework to new realities to align with societal developments, including the intensive use of social media.

Among these innovations, the electoral laws—notably Law 55.25 concerning the general electoral lists, referendum operations, and the use of public audiovisual means during electoral and referendum campaigns—provide many tools aimed at tightening the use of new communication methods.

In short, this involves the prohibition of political advertising on social media, with heavy penalties for fake news, coupled with strict regulation of often biased polls that harm the integrity of election processes.

Indeed, with the potential abuses brought by the misuse of artificial intelligence, the risks are increasingly significant, hence the importance of the new framework intended to regulate them. Regarding these potential abuses, the text provides for fines ranging from 50,000 to 100,000 dirhams.

2006, a year of hard work

According to the Interior Committee’s report, citing the presentation by Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit, this prohibition aims to preserve the Moroccan democratic model while guaranteeing the integrity of elections against risks related to the digital sphere, such as the use by certain parties who make disinformation and data manipulation their battle tactic.

The battle against “electronic flies” is thus launched in advance. It is well known, of course, that this kind of “disruptive conduct,” or attempts thereof, is driven by the desire to influence voters’ choices, discourage them from going to the polls, or disrupt the normal course of electoral operations, thereby undermining the freedom and confidentiality of the voting process as a whole.

The “agitators” are already at work. With these new measures, impartial observers will have noted a shift from post-electoral interventions to rigorous monitoring of the entire electoral campaign process, particularly concerning voting day.

This also means that interventions to safeguard the process will not wait for the Constitutional Court to step in to limit the damage after the fact. A year 2026 of great labor!

For the Interior Minister, contrary to what some parties, quick to “hasty judgment of intent,” have circulated, it is in no way a matter of “restricting freedom of expression,” but of “protecting the fairness of the electoral process and preventing, along the way, the illegal manipulation of voters’ will.”

For citizens as well as political actors, the repressive measures provided by the law against offenders would serve to limit “breaches.”

In the same vein, the law criminalizes the use of so-called social networks, open broadcasting platforms, means employing artificial intelligence, or any online service to produce polls related to electoral operations during periods when they are strictly prohibited by law. Justice is keeping a close watch, and those involved are playing with high stakes—at their own risk and peril!

And when one considers that this entire process resulted from consultations with various actors on the Moroccan political scene, it is hard to see how certain parties could call it into question!

Within the Deadlines

The House of Representatives unanimously approved the three electoral system bills on Monday, December 1st.

The government approved an amendment presented by the majority groups concerning Article 23 of the organic bill related to the House of Representatives, which reduces the threshold required to support independent youth lists from 5% to 2% of the votes cast.
Article 6, regarding grounds for ineligibility, sparked broad debate.

Opposition MPs emphasized the presumption of innocence to allow individuals apprehended in flagrante delicto to run in elections. The attempt failed.

In their reaction to the bills, the majority groups welcomed the introduced innovations, particularly the creation of regional lists reserved for women to encourage their participation in political life, as well as the support for youth under 35 through the coverage of 75% of electoral campaign expenses, stating that these amendments reflect the government’s commitment to broadening political participation.