Poll: Over half of Moroccans voted without pressure in the last election

Only 59% of Moroccans said they voted without pressure in the last national election campaign, unlike in Sierra Leone, where around 94% said they were able to vote for their preferred candidate freely, according to new Afrobarometer findings covering 38 African countries.

Just 2% of Moroccans said they personally feared becoming a victim of political intimidation or violence. In Guinea and Malawi, however, 41% and 38% reported such fears.

Titled “Africans want elections but don’t trust electoral management bodies to ensure they’re free and fair,” the report found that 22% of Moroccans believe it’s likely that powerful people could find out how they voted, despite the secret ballot.

The sentiment is stronger in Gabon and South Africa, at 48% and 44% respectively.

Also, 53% of Moroccans believe that MPs never try to listen to ordinary people, while 29% said they do so only sometimes.

The survey also showed that 57% of Moroccans believe that having many political parties is necessary to ensure real choices in government, slightly below the African average of 63% across 38 countries.

This represents a three-point increase in support for Morocco’s multi-party system from 2014–2015 to 2024–2025.

Botswana leads the continent, with 80% of its citizens supporting multiple parties, followed by Cabo Verde and Tanzania at 79% each.

However, support for many political parties is lower in Tunisia, Mali, and Lesotho, where only 37%, 34%, and 32% of participants, respectively, favor them.

Between 2014/2015 and 2024/2025, support for having multiple political parties in Mali dropped by a significant 35 percentage points.

The findings also showed that around 77% of Moroccans reject both dictatorship and one-party rule, unlike in Tunisia, where only 48% reject a system in which elections and parliament are abolished so the president can decide everything, and about 54% reject allowing only one political party to stand for election and hold office.

This sentiment is even stronger in Seychelles, where 95% reject dictatorship and 94% reject one-party rule.

47% of Moroccans said the last national election was completely free and fair, with only minor problems, while 38% reported major ones.

This places the kingdom below the 38-country average for elections considered free and fair, with 55% reporting minor problems and 36% reporting major ones.

Senegal leads, with 88% saying the last elections were free and fair with only minor issues and 7% reporting major problems, unlike Gabon, where a whopping majority of 89% saw major problems and just 10% minor ones.