2026 legislative elections: Preparations are gathering pace
The royal speech has called into question the holiday plans of political leaders. From now on, they must work hard this month to better prepare for the 2026 legislative elections. His Majesty King Mohammed VI’s instructions could not have been clearer: everything related to the upcoming elections must be undertaken and completed before the end of this year.
The Minister of the Interior is therefore required to work twice as hard to prepare the various arrangements for the upcoming elections within the set deadlines.
Abdelouafi Laftit has been very responsive, organizing a series of meetings, including two with political leaders to agree on the approach to be taken. The Minister of the Interior first met with the political parties represented in Parliament, before organizing a second meeting with the other parties.
After outlining a comprehensive reform of the electoral system, the Minister of the Interior gave them documents to work on immediately so that they could submit proposals to him by the end of August on the texts to be revised, which will be at the heart of the upcoming elections.
n any case, Aziz Akhannouch, as president of the RNI (National Rally of Independents), did not participate in the first consultation meeting with political party leaders, led by Abdelouafi Laftit. He chose instead to send Rachid Talbi Alami, President of the House of Representatives, and Mustapha Baytas, Minister of Relations with Parliament, both members of the party’s political bureau.
On the other hand, the two other majority parties were represented by their leaders. This was the case for Fatima-Zahra Mansouri for the PAM (Authenticity and Modernity Party), who was accompanied by Samir Koudar, president of the Marrakech-Safi region. Nizar Baraka, secretary general of Istiqlal, came with Abdeljabbar Rachidi, Secretary of State and president of the party’s national council.
It must be said that, politically speaking, the absence of the Prime Minister (Head of Government) did not go unnoticed.
On the contrary, the decision to appoint the Minister of the Interior to oversee consultations with the parties was widely commented on in political circles, as it is usually the Head of Government who chairs this first meeting before delegating to the Minister of the Interior to work technically with the political parties on the legal arsenal.
This was done during the two terms of Abdelilah Benkirane and Saâdeddine Al Othmani. Today, things have changed, by royal decree, which opens the door to commentary. The current Secretary-General of the PJD (Justice and Development Party) did not hesitate to describe Aziz Akhannouch’s absence from the meeting as a snub to the Government.
Mohamed CHAOUI
