Rabat: Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has appointed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, national coordinator of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), as the country’s new prime minister, the royal palace said.
El Mansouri becomes Morocco’s first female head of government.
The PAM won 97 of 395 seats in the House of Representatives, parliament’s lower house, in the parliamentary elections held on Sept. 23, finishing first, reports Xinhua news agency.
Under the constitution, the king appoints the prime minister from the party with the most seats, which then forms a government.
Morocco’s Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) won the most seats in Wednesday’s parliamentary election, according to preliminary results released by the Interior Ministry.
The PAM secured 97 seats in the 395-member House of Representatives, followed by the National Rally of Independents with 66 seats and the Istiqlal Party with 65 seats, Moroccan Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit said.
The Justice and Development Party won 54 seats, ranking fourth, according to the results.
Of the 395-seat House of Representatives, 305 are contested through local electoral constituencies, while the remaining 90 are allocated exclusively to women through regional lists.
According to the Interior Ministry, a total of 7,288 candidates were registered nationwide, representing 28 political groups in the election.
Women accounted for 2,658 of the candidates registered for the election, representing 36.47 per cent of the total, it added.
Morocco has a bicameral parliament consisting of the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors. The 2026 election determines the members of Morocco’s House of Representatives across the country’s 12 regions.
The election of the House of Councillors is scheduled for 2027.
The major parties are the National Rally of Independents, the Authenticity and Modernity Party, and the Istiqlal Party, which formed the outgoing government.
They competed alongside the Justice and Development Party, which led coalition governments following the 2011 and 2016 general elections, the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, the Popular Movement, and the Party of Progress and Socialism.
(IANS)
