Morocco’s Interior Minister: Expats Have Equal Voting Rights, No Plans for Overseas Polling

Moroccan electoral laws guarantee Moroccans residing abroad (MREs) their right to participate in elections on an equal footing with citizens residing in Morocco, said Abdelouafi Laftit, specifying that MREs have the right to vote either directly in polling stations in Morocco or by proxy. Thus, he said that the government has taken measures to strengthen the representation of MREs in institutions, in particular the obligation for political parties to place a candidate residing abroad at the head of a regional list of candidates at least, in order to encourage parties to integrate Moroccan women residing abroad into political life.

Another measure: the granting of financial incentives to parties to encourage them to include candidates from the Moroccan community in their electoral lists. The minister also stressed the importance of the role of political parties in ensuring broad participation of MREs in elections, and calls on them to place candidates from the diaspora in advanced positions on their candidate lists. Meeting the challenge of ensuring broad participation of MREs in various electoral polls requires the cooperation of all stakeholders, he insisted.

Article 17 of the Constitution guarantees Moroccans of the world all the rights of citizenship, including the exercise of their electoral rights within the framework of local, regional and national electoral constituencies, as indicated by the Economic, Social and Environmental Council in a report entitled "Towards strengthening the generational link with Moroccans of the world: opportunities and challenges", noting however that the Constitution does not expressly provide for the creation of electoral constituencies outside the country. The council also mentioned organizational and logistical difficulties, as well as legal obstacles that do not facilitate the creation of electoral constituencies for MREs.

Another difficulty: the cases of incompatibility provided for by the electoral system prevent active political elites outside Morocco, who hold government, representative or public positions in their countries of residence, from running for elections in Morocco. To solve these problems, the Council has made several recommendations, including the establishment of organizational and technical, particularly digital, arrangements to facilitate registration on national electoral lists and voting in legislative elections for Moroccans of the world, the strengthening of international decentralized cooperation between local authorities in Morocco and their counterparts abroad, which include in their ranks elected officials from the Moroccan community, whose number reaches thousands in elected councils around the world.

The Economic, Social and Environmental Council also called for mobilizing the expertise of Moroccans of the world and the networks of Moroccan skills residing abroad to develop, implement bilateral, regional and international programs related to migration in general, as well as the fight against the effects of climate change and adaptation to them, strengthen the capacities of targeted local populations, as well as dialogue with international partners, in addition to recognizing the social utility of the activities of MRE associations - 1700 of which 90% in Europe, 6% in North America and 3% in Arab and African countries - and encouraging the creation of Moroccan chambers of commerce abroad.