A legal petition seeking to end Morocco’s GMT+1 time system has collected only 2,107 valid signatures, less than two months after an online campaign against the added hour drew more than 300,000 digital backers, organizers told Hespress.
The National Committee for the Legal Petition to Return to Standard Time said it is still reviewing signature lists submitted by regional coordinators, with some local teams yet to send their forms. But Mohcine El Ouduari, the petition’s representative, said the campaign is unlikely to reach the 4,000 valid signatures required to formally submit the petition to public authorities.
“At best, we will not exceed 3,000 signatures,” El Ouduari said, calling the result a disappointment.
The gap exposes the limits of Morocco’s legal petition mechanism, where online support carries no formal weight. Under Organic Law 44.14 on petitions to public authorities, a petition must be backed by at least 4,000 citizens whose signatures are accompanied by national identity card numbers and expiry dates.
The campaign began in early April under the slogan of returning to “legal time,” a reference to GMT, after years of public complaints over Morocco’s decision to keep GMT+1 for most of the year. The government adopted the added hour permanently in 2018, suspending it temporarily during Ramadan.
The measure has long drawn criticism from parents, workers and teachers who say it forces children and employees to leave home in the dark during parts of the year. Supporters of GMT+1 have argued that the time system aligns Morocco more closely with European business hours.
El Ouduari said many citizens who supported the demand online refused to sign when approached in person. He described the contrast between digital mobilization and paper signatures as a “paradox.”
Organizers also blamed internal problems. El Ouduari said 32 local coordinators out of 115 withdrew from the campaign or failed to collect signatures, citing reasons he described as mostly personal rather than objective.
Hamid Tahiri, deputy representative of the committee, confirmed that organizers are still receiving and checking lists to avoid submitting signatures that fail legal requirements and could invalidate the petition.
He said the campaign’s failure or success now depends on whether citizens move “from digital struggle to action on the ground” by signing the legal petition, not only supporting the demand online.
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