Starting now, MMNEWS is launching a special editorial series:

“2026 Elections — The MMNEWS MRE Party Platform Review”

We will examine political programmes one party at a time, using official documents, publicly stated commitments and verifiable proposals. Our purpose is not to judge which party has the best overall political platform. Nor is it to tell readers how to vote.

Our task is much more specific: to determine what each party concretely proposes for Moroccans of the World — and how serious those proposals really are.

An election that also belongs to Moroccans abroad

Morocco’s Constitution leaves little room for ambiguity. Article 17 recognizes Moroccans living abroad as full citizens, including their right to vote and to stand for election.

The debate, therefore, is not about whether MREs belong in Morocco’s political life. They do. The more relevant question is whether the mechanisms offered to them match that constitutional principle.

For the 2026 legislative elections, registered Moroccan voters abroad can establish a voting proxy electronically. The representative they appoint must then physically cast the ballot in Morocco.

In other words:

the proxy has gone digital. The ballot has not.

That distinction will form part of MMNEWS’ analysis of party proposals.

The campaign is entering a decisive phase

The official electoral media period began on August 15. Candidate registration runs from August 31 to September 8, while the formal election campaign begins on September 10 and continues until September 22, ahead of polling day on September 23. Politically, however, the campaign has already started.

Major parties are presenting candidates, holding internal meetings and gradually unveiling their priorities. Some have published substantial policy documents. Others are still preparing their final programmes.

MMNEWS will therefore avoid judging a party on leaked, incomplete or provisional material when an official programme has not yet been released.

MREs will not be treated as a footnote

During election campaigns, Moroccans abroad are frequently described as investors, ambassadors of the Kingdom, reservoirs of expertise or bridges between Morocco and the world. Those expressions sound positive. But MMNEWS wants to know what comes after the praise.

Does a party propose a concrete reform of the MRE voting system?

Does it support parliamentary representation specifically for Moroccans abroad?

What does it propose for consular services?

What about investment, savings, pensions, social-security agreements, returning to Morocco, or children and grandchildren born abroad?

And, crucially, are these proposals backed by an actual mechanism, timetable or legislative plan?

Because promising to “strengthen ties with Moroccans of the World” is not the same as explaining what will change, how it will change and when.

Nine criteria for every party

MMNEWS will use the same analytical framework for all parties. Each programme will be examined through nine MRE-related areas:

political participation and voting; parliamentary representation; consular and administrative services; investment and entrepreneurship; savings and remittances; pensions and social protection; return to Morocco; younger generations, language and cultural transmission; and the mobilisation of Moroccan expertise abroad.

Each proposal will then be classified as either:

a specific measure, a general commitment, or no identifiable proposal.

That distinction matters. A detailed reform proposal should not carry the same weight as a broad sentence about “valuing the diaspora”.

An MRE score — not a political score

At the end of every analysis, MMNEWS will give the party an MRE score . This score will not say whether MMNEWS supports or opposes that party.

It will measure only the importance given to Moroccans abroad and the precision of the commitments made to them.

A party may therefore receive a strong MRE score even if readers disagree with its broader political programme.

Likewise, a major party may receive a weak score if it speaks frequently about the diaspora but offers few concrete measures. The objective is comparison, not endorsement.

One party at a time, under the same rules

RNI, Istiqlal, PAM, PJD, USFP, the Popular Movement, PPS, Constitutional Union and the other parties will all be assessed using the same methodology.

And if MMNEWS cannot identify a complete official programme from a particular party, we will not simply write that “the party has no programme”.

We will state exactly what we can establish:

“As of the date of this analysis, MMNEWS found no complete official 2026 programme publicly accessible in the sources reviewed.”

That level of precision matters.

We will also test whether promises are feasible

Party proposals will be compared with the legal system currently in force. If a party proposes voting at Moroccan consulates, automatic electoral registration or dedicated parliamentary seats for the diaspora, MMNEWS will explain what legal or institutional changes would actually be required.

Readers will therefore see not only what a party promises, but also how far that promise is from becoming reality.

This is where the dossier becomes more than a collection of campaign statements. It becomes a tool for accountability.

A campaign viewed from Paris, Montreal, Dubai, Dakar and Sydney

The concerns of a Moroccan living in Brussels are not identical to those of a Moroccan in New York, Riyadh, Abidjan or Sydney. Yet many questions overlap: citizenship, administration, investment, social rights, cultural transmission and the relationship with Morocco.

That is why MMNEWS will approach this election from a global diaspora perspective. Until September 23, we will keep returning to one deliberately simple question:

You talk about Moroccans of the World. What are you actually offering them? For MMNEWS, MREs will not be a symbolic paragraph buried at the end of an electoral programme.

They will be the lens through which we read it.