How election challenges work in Morocco: A guide to the post-election process

Election night does not always settle who gets to keep a parliamentary seat.

After results are announced, candidates and voters can challenge an election if they believe electoral violations affected the process or the declared result.

In Morocco, such challenges are formal legal proceedings subject to specific deadlines, filing requirements and rules on who can bring a case. The Constitutional Court has the final say on disputes involving the election of members of Parliament.

Here is how the process works.

Who can challenge an election?

For elections to the House of Representatives, candidates, voters and regional governors or provincial and prefectural governors can challenge election results under the applicable rules.

Political parties do not automatically have standing to file a challenge simply in their capacity as parties. A challenge must be brought by a person or authority legally entitled to do so.

Recent Constitutional Court rulings show that both candidates and voters have filed election challenges.

There is a 30-day deadline

A challenge to the election of a member of Parliament must be filed within 30 days of the announcement of the election results.

The Constitutional Court has emphasized that the formal requirements governing the filing of challenges must be respected.

A challenge must be submitted in writing and can be filed in one of three ways:

• directly with the Constitutional Court’s registry;
• with the governor of the region or the governor of the prefecture or province where the election took place; or
• with the registry of the first-instance court in the constituency where the election was held.

When a challenge is filed through a governor or a first-instance court, it is forwarded to the Constitutional Court. The person filing it receives a receipt indicating the filing date and the documents submitted in support of the challenge.

What has to be in the challenge?

The written petition must identify the person filing it, their legal capacity and address. It must also identify the elected candidate or candidates whose election is being challenged and set out the facts and legal grounds on which the challenge is based.

Supporting documents must be submitted with the petition. A challenger may also be represented by a lawyer.

The Constitutional Court can, in exceptional circumstances, grant additional time for the submission of certain supporting documents. Recent court decisions show that such extensions have been granted in individual cases.

There is no court fee or stamp duty for filing an election challenge.

Filing a challenge does not, by itself, suspend the validity of the announced result.

What can be challenged?

Challenges can concern different stages of the electoral process, including candidate eligibility, the conduct of voting, ballot counting and the preparation of election records.

Constitutional Court cases have addressed allegations involving voting procedures, discrepancies in polling records and candidate eligibility, among other issues.

In one 2022 case involving the Safi constituency, for example, the court considered claims concerning the eligibility of an elected candidate as well as allegations relating to the voting process.

But proving that a violation occurred is not necessarily enough to overturn an election.

Did the violation affect the result?

One of the key questions before the Constitutional Court is whether the alleged violation affected the credibility or outcome of the election.

The court can reject a challenge without conducting a full investigation when the complaints clearly could not have affected the election results.

In practice, this means a distinction can arise between an electoral irregularity and an irregularity serious enough to justify cancelling an election.

For example, the Constitutional Court has found that certain alleged violations were established but did not affect the result and therefore did not warrant cancellation.

What happens after a challenge is filed?

The Constitutional Court notifies the elected member whose election is being challenged and provides an opportunity to respond.

The challenged member has 15 days from notification to review the supporting documents and submit written observations. The court may then communicate those observations to the other parties and allow them to respond.

The process does not necessarily end with written submissions.

The court can request election records and other documents from the relevant authorities. It can also order an investigation, including hearing witnesses or assigning one or more of its members to conduct investigative procedures on the ground.

How long does the court have?

The Constitutional Court generally has one year from the end of the period for filing challenges to rule on parliamentary election disputes.

It can exceed that period if the number of challenges or the circumstances of a particular case make this necessary, but it must issue a reasoned decision explaining why.

Once a case is ready for a decision, the court generally rules within 60 days after hearing the report of the judge assigned to the case.

The court can also reject a petition as inadmissible or dismiss it without a prior investigation when the legal requirements are not met or when the alleged violations clearly could not have affected the election results.

What can the Constitutional Court decide?

The court can reject a challenge, including where the person filing it lacks legal standing or where the allegations do not justify altering the result.

It can also rule in favor of the challenger.

When it upholds a challenge, the Constitutional Court can:

• cancel the contested election; or
• correct the vote totals announced by the relevant counting committee and, where appropriate, declare another candidate the legally elected winner.

If an election is cancelled, a new election may be held in accordance with the electoral law.

The court has exercised this power in previous cases. In January 2023, for example, it cancelled the election of a member of the House of Representatives in the Safi constituency and ordered a partial election for the seat.

When do voters go back to the polls?

Moroccan electoral law provides for partial elections in cases where the Constitutional Court orders a new vote after cancelling the election of one or more members.

The procedure also applies in other circumstances, including when an entire election result is cancelled, when a member loses eligibility and when the seat cannot be filled through the applicable replacement procedure.

Where a new election is ordered following cancellation, the vote is generally held within three months of publication of the Constitutional Court’s decision in the Official Gazette, subject to the applicable legal provisions.

What does a partial election look like?

The Interior Ministry sets the electoral timetable, including the date of the vote and the periods for submitting candidacies and campaigning.

Candidates and political parties then go through the relevant electoral procedures again in the affected constituency.

A recent example came in Safi after the Constitutional Court declared the seat held by former MP Mohamed El Haidaoui vacant and ordered a partial election. The court’s decision, issued in December 2023, declared the seat vacant and ordered a partial election.

The Interior Ministry subsequently organized the partial election, with the campaign running from Feb. 9 to Feb. 21, 2024.

The post-election process, therefore, does not necessarily end when votes are counted. For parliamentary elections, Morocco’s legal framework gives candidates and other authorized parties a defined window to challenge results, while the Constitutional Court has the authority to investigate alleged irregularities and ultimately determine whether an election should stand.