Rabat- In the context of preparations for the parliamentary and municipal elections scheduled for next year, the Moroccan Interior Minister, Abdel Wahed Laftit, presented in Parliament a draft law to change the organizational law of the House of Representatives, aiming to create (developing the political process with laws and procedures to ensure integrity and transparency), political work and protecting the reputation of the legislative institution, after a number of representatives in this state were involved in corruption cases.
Dozens of representatives were involved in corruption and waste of public funds, and final rulings were issued against some of them, others are still on trial, while a number of them were stripped of their membership in Parliament.
Of the 375 deputies in the House of Representatives, the Constitutional Court in this legislative mandate issued decisions to strip 29 deputies from membership in the House due to their involvement in cases of corruption and breaking the law. Local media sources revealed that 26 parliamentarians are being pursued in corruption files, some of whom were convicted in the first instance and others on appeal, and some of whom are awaiting the cassation stage.
A report by the Ministry of Interior, seen by Al Jazeera Net, showed that 302 members of municipal councils were referred to the judiciary in 2025, compared to 137 last year, and the matter concerns 52 mayors, 57 vice-presidents, 124 members, and 69 former presidents.
The project and its objectives
Interior Minister Abdel Wahed Laftit said, during his presentation of the draft law before the Interior, Territorial Communities, Housing, City Policy and Administrative Affairs Committee in Parliament, last Wednesday, that the draft aims to strengthen the necessary rules to organize elections for members of the House of Representatives and support the transparency of elections.
He added that achieving this goal constitutes a conviction shared by all parties concerned with the aim of preserving the reputation of the parliamentary institution in national and international public opinion, pointing out that the rules proposed by the law were inspired by lessons learned from national electoral practice throughout previous states and from what is being implemented in ancient democracies.
The project aims to activate the rules of synthesis in the various stages of the electoral series, starting from the period of filing nominations to the mandate period, through the electoral campaign period and polling day.
The draft law prohibits the candidacy of anyone caught red-handed committing certain crimes, persons against whom appellate convictions have been issued that lapse their electoral eligibility, persons against whom preliminary conviction sentences have been issued for a felony, as well as persons who have been removed from a secondment mission.
It also stipulates the tightening of prison penalties and financial fines for crimes committed on the occasion of the elections by raising them to at least double, and also the stripping of every MP who is under arrest for a period equal to or exceeding 6 months of his membership in Parliament.
The law classified some crimes from a misdemeanor to a felony, such as storming voting offices while carrying weapons to prevent voters from voting, violating electoral processes in order to change the outcome of the election, or seizing the ballot box before the ballot papers inside it were counted.
The dilemma of trust
For his part, political analyst Mohamed Al-Omrani Boukhbaza said that the start of discussing projects aimed at creating political and parliamentary work came after studies showed that the level of confidence of the Moroccan citizen in elected institutions is very weak, especially in parliament, the government and political parties.
He explained to Al Jazeera Net that this dilemma “affects the essence of the democratic process,” which makes taking practical measures to restore confidence a major priority at the current stage.
Political analyst Mohamed Choucair also stressed that the project presented by the Minister of the Interior must be placed in its general political context, which is characterized by the presence of a clear political will on the part of the Moroccan monarch to reduce the manifestations of corruption that have worsened during the current legislative term.
Shuqair added to Al Jazeera Net that the authorities have shown unprecedented severity in pursuing elected officials involved in corruption cases, whether in municipalities or in Parliament.
The Moroccan King, King Mohammed VI, had stressed in his Throne Speech last July the necessity of providing the general system framing the parliamentary elections, and for it to be approved and known before the end of the current year. He gave his directions to the Minister of the Interior to prepare well for the upcoming legislative elections, and to open the door to political consultations with various actors.
The Minister of the Interior held two meetings last summer with leaders of political parties, in which it was agreed that the parties would submit memorandums containing their visions for organizing the upcoming elections.
Analyst Choucair explained that the project submitted to Parliament is the result of this political dialogue between the Ministry of Interior and the parties with the aim of restoring confidence in elected institutions.
Meanwhile, urban expert Boukhbaza confirmed that the Ministry of Interior, since the last royal speech, has been working to improve the legal texts framing the electoral process and political parties with the aim of addressing the disturbing situation in the political scene.
He pointed out that these laws do not only aim to control the electoral process or draw the political map as before, but rather, in essence, they aim to restore citizens’ confidence in Parliament and elected institutions and revitalize political life, calling for the issuance of a charter of ethics within Parliament.
Street movements
Criticism directed at the political elites represented in Parliament has recently increased, especially as the Kingdom prepares to organize major regional and international demonstrations.
Analyst Choucair said that the current stage calls for the emergence of competent and honest political and administrative elites, considering that “the current elites involved in corruption cases have become a burden on Morocco and are harming its reputation abroad.”
On the other hand, the same spokesman indicated that the currently proposed reforms come in response to the youth expressions that have recently appeared and raised slogans demanding the fight against corruption.
Youth groups calling themselves the “Generation Z 212” movement organized protests in a number of Moroccan cities last month, raising the slogan “The people want to overthrow corruption.”
Choucair said that the project presented by the Minister of the Interior in Parliament came in response to these demands, especially restricting the nomination of suspicious elites in Parliament, controlling the financing of electoral campaigns, and obliging parties and candidates to refer their financial reports to the Supreme Council of Accounts.
He explained that the authorities express a strict desire for the upcoming elections to be fair and transparent, stressing that this strictness reflects a clear trend towards purging the political scene of practices that have harmed the image of institutions and hindered the completion of major projects.
As for the Omrani expert, he believes that political reform is a complex process that is always faced by pockets of resistance, adding that previous experiences did not achieve the expected results, but the presence of a clear political will and new monitoring mechanisms may allow Morocco to move to a more advanced level of democratic practice, as he put it.