Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri has been tasked with building a coalition government after her party secured 97 of 395 parliamentary seats
Moroccan King Mohammed VI has appointed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as the North African nation’s first female prime minister following her party’s victory in last week’s parliamentary elections, the royal palace has announced.
The monarch tasked the 50-year-old lawyer, who served as housing minister and mayor of Marrakech, with forming a new government, according to a statement released on Tuesday.
Mansouri’s liberal-centrist Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) won 97 of the lower house’s 395 seats in the September 23 vote and must form a coalition to secure a governing majority. She becomes the second woman to serve as prime minister in an Arab country, after Tunisia’s Najla Bouden, who held the post from 2021 to 2023.
PAM overtook outgoing Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch’s National Rally of Independents, which won 66 seats, followed by Istiqlal with 65, according to results published by the Interior Ministry on September 25. Turnout fell to about 38%, compared with around 50% in 2021, official figures showed.
PAM was part of Akhannouch’s outgoing coalition government alongside his National Rally of Independents and Istiqlal. During the campaign, PAM ruled out renewing the alliance with Akhannouch’s party, but Mansouri later said she had no “red lines” for coalition talks.
The appointment comes amid an investigation into suspected electoral fraud in the northern port city of Tangier. Prosecutors said a polling-station deputy allegedly removed ballots with the station head’s help before returning them to two polling stations in coordination with other suspects. Investigators found that ink on the seized ballots differed from that used at the polling stations.
Tangier Mayor Mounir Limouri, a PAM official, was placed in police custody on Monday as part of the investigation, multiple outlets reported, citing judicial sources. Five other suspects were held in pretrial detention. Limouri denied any connection to the alleged tampering.
PAM said it would take disciplinary action against members if investigators established their involvement.
Founded in 2008 by Fouad Ali El Himma, a close adviser and childhood friend of the king, PAM emerged as a secular-leaning rival to the Islamist Justice and Development Party.
The constitution requires the king to appoint the premier from the party that wins the most parliamentary seats but the monarch retains sweeping powers over defense and foreign policy.
The new government will oversee Morocco’s preparations to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup with Spain and Portugal. Spending on the tournament partly fueled deadly youth-led protests last year, with demonstrators demanding jobs and better healthcare and education. During the election campaign, parties offered jobs and affordable housing to attract young voters after July’s mass border crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Reuters reported.
Mansouri has pledged a program offering “concrete and realistic solutions to citizens’ concerns,” acknowledging high expectations, particularly among young people.
