Ten days after Morocco’s 23 September legislative election, the political results are known and the process of forming a new government is under way. One question directly affecting Moroccans living abroad remains unanswered: how many MRE voters used the electronic proxy platform, and how many of those authorisations ultimately resulted in a vote?
MMNEWS reported on the system when it opened, explaining both the procedure and the opportunity it appeared to offer voters unable to travel to Morocco. The time has now come to assess its impact.
A fresh review of the official information available on 3 October found no national total for either validated e-proxies or ballots cast through them.
This is not a minor statistical issue. The figures are essential to determine whether a tool presented as a practical response to geographical distance actually improved the political participation of Moroccans abroad.
A genuine administrative step forward
The electronic platform was open from 24 August until noon on 22 September 2026. It was available to Moroccan citizens residing abroad who were registered on Morocco’s general electoral rolls.
The procedure allowed an MRE voter to enter their own information and that of a registered voter in Morocco, generate the proxy document, download it and send it to the person authorised to vote on their behalf.
Moving much of that process online removed some of the practical barriers traditionally associated with arranging a proxy from another country. That was a meaningful administrative improvement.
But launching a digital service does not, by itself, prove that the service worked as intended. The relevant questions are how many voters completed the process and how many authorised representatives actually reached the polling station with a valid proxy.
Two separate figures are still missing
The official election portal publishes the electoral calendar, the final results and several accounts of polling day. It does not provide an identifiable national count of e-proxies.
Two indicators must be kept separate.
The first is the number of electronic proxy requests completed and validated before the platform closed. This would show how widely the administrative service was adopted.
The second is the number of proxy ballots actually cast on 23 September. This would measure real electoral use.
Treating those numbers as interchangeable would be misleading. A proxy generated online may never have been transmitted, may have been rejected or cancelled, or may simply not have been used on election day.
Without both totals, it is not possible to claim on evidence that the e-proxy mechanism fully met MRE expectations. Nor is it possible to conclude that it failed. The accurate finding is more limited: the public data needed for an assessment have not yet been released.
Proxy votes should be traceable
The lack of a published figure does not mean that the information cannot be compiled.
Organic Law No. 27-11 requires a special entry in the polling station record when a representative votes on behalf of an elector residing outside Morocco. Proxy ballots should therefore leave an administrative trace.
The Interior Ministry also recalled before the election that candidate-list representatives are entitled to monitor voting and counting operations, submit observations for inclusion in polling records and obtain copies of those records.
The platform administration should be able to establish how many requests were submitted and validated. The polling station records should, in turn, make it possible to determine how many proxies were actually exercised.
In its preliminary observations, Morocco’s National Human Rights Council recommended an evaluation of proxy voting for Moroccans residing abroad. That recommendation underlines the broader issue: the question is not merely whether the website functioned, but whether the mechanism produced meaningful electoral participation.
The total MRE population is not the right denominator
A proper assessment will also require publication of the official number of MRE citizens registered on the general electoral rolls.
Dividing the number of proxies by the entire Moroccan population abroad—often estimated in the millions—would produce a weak and potentially misleading rate. That population includes minors, people who are not registered and others who may not have been eligible under the relevant electoral rules.
Two ratios would provide a more useful picture:
- Adoption rate: validated electronic proxies divided by registered MRE voters.
- Effective-use rate: proxy ballots actually cast divided by validated proxies.
Together, those measures would reveal whether voters showed interest in the platform, whether they could complete the procedure, whether they were able to find a trusted representative and whether the digital authorisation was ultimately converted into a ballot.
What an official assessment should disclose
A meaningful report should go beyond one headline number. It should answer the following questions:
- How many applications were started on the platform?
- How many were completed and validated?
- How many were rejected, cancelled or abandoned?
- What were the principal reasons for rejection?
- How many proxies were actually used on election day?
- How were they distributed by country of residence and electoral constituency, while protecting personal data?
- How many requests for assistance and technical incidents were recorded?
- How many MRE voters were officially registered on the electoral rolls?
Publishing those figures would not weaken the initiative. It would help improve it, expose practical obstacles and provide an evidence-based foundation for future elections.
A wider democratic question
The e-proxy system addresses a real problem, but it retains an indirect link between the citizen abroad and the ballot box in Morocco. The MRE voter must be registered in a Moroccan municipality or district, identify a trusted voter and rely on that person’s availability on polling day.
The take-up figures would therefore reveal more than the popularity of a website. They would help assess whether proxy voting can compensate for distance—and where its social and practical limits remain.
If use was low, the reasons must be examined: limited information, a short timetable, registration difficulties, lack of trust, inability to find a proxy, or demand for a different form of participation. If many proxies were created, the key question becomes how many were converted into actual votes.
Either way, the numbers matter.
MMNEWS is asking the question again
Ten days after the election, MMNEWS is renewing its call for a national report on the MRE e-proxy system:
How many electronic proxies were completed and validated, and how many of them actually enabled an MRE voter to cast a ballot on 23 September 2026?
This request assumes neither success nor failure. It is a basic demand for public-policy evaluation and transparency towards the Moroccans abroad for whom the mechanism was created.
The platform offered a first technical answer. The data will show whether it also delivered a democratic answer equal to MRE expectations.
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