Morocco is a young country: close to one adult in six is between 18 and 24. In autumn 2025 tens of thousands of them filled the streets as GenZ 212, demanding hospitals, schools, jobs and an end to corruption.
On 23 September 2026 Morocco elected a new parliament. On the list of people allowed to vote, 18–24-year-olds were 4%. People over sixty were 29%. A voter list does not only record who cares. It records who got through a door.
Turnout was 38%, the lowest since 2007 (the 2021 election combined national and local contests on one day). A major Islamist movement called for a boycott, and political scientist Abderrahim El Allam said the young, having protested in the streets, were now protesting by staying away.
But look at the list itself. In 2021, 18–24-year-olds were 8% of it, as they had been for a decade; in 2026 they were half that. And the whole list shrank, from about 18 million names to fewer than 16 million, while the population grew. How does a Moroccan get onto the list, and how do they come off it?
Turning 18 does not put you on the list. You apply, in the district where you have lived for at least three months, with your national ID, online or at the local administration, and only during the annual revision: for the September 2026 election that was December 2025, plus a 30-day exceptional window in May–June. The list closed three months before the vote.
El Allam argues registration is now simple and that people are refusing to register. In 2021 Morocco's statistics office found about a third of 18–24-year-olds on the list, against 94% of over-60s; in 2026, by our arithmetic from official figures, about one in seven of the youngest. The December rule was the same in 2021, so it does not explain the drop by itself. It explains how long a drop lasts: one missed month can mean sitting out a whole parliament.
In January 2026 the Interior Minister told parliament that about 1.4 million entries had been removed, mainly because the people no longer lived where they were registered; in the same period about 380,000 people registered for the first time. Removing movers is a reasonable rule: a list full of people who live elsewhere can be abused. The ministry did not publish the ages of those removed, but the band that moves most, 25–34, fell from 19% of the list to 15%.
Put the two doors together and the list drifts older with every election. The only age group that grew in absolute numbers was the over-60s. So why not simply put everyone on the list?
First, a Moroccan price: since 2021 the seats a party wins in a district are calculated from how many people are registered there, not how many voted. Change who is on the list and you change how seats are shared, so every party has a stake.
Build the list from existing records. France has registered 18-year-olds automatically since 1997; by 2022, 99 in 100 under-30s were on the list. Oregon registers people at the driving licence office. Price: accuracy — almost four in ten French 18–25-year-olds are registered where they do not live; California's licence office sent 23,000 faulty registrations and registered about 1,500 non-citizens in 2018; Germany keeps its lists right by fining residents up to €1,000 who fail to report a move within two weeks.
Make it a duty. Australia requires enrolment and voting and adds people directly from other agencies' data; about nine in ten 18–24-year-olds were enrolled by June 2026. Price: compulsion, fines, and pooled state data — and people on the list who would rather not be.
Lower the step. Keep registration voluntary but open until the vote, or on election day: in US states with same-day registration, turnout among 18–24-year-olds rose by 3 to 7 points. Price: pressure on polling stations and disputes over proof of identity at the desk.
Morocco's 2025 reform pays up to three quarters of the campaign costs of candidate lists aged 35 or under. It made standing for parliament cheaper for the young, and left unchanged what it takes to vote for one.
None of this proves young Moroccans wanted to vote and were stopped; many did not. But the rules decide how long a refusal lasts and how visible it is. An automatic list counts the young person who stays home as a voter who did not vote; a compulsory one brings them in with a fine; a lower step leaves the choice closer to the day. Here, until the next December, they are simply not on the list.
When a young country's voter list gets older at every election, ask who decided what it takes to get onto the list — and what it takes to fall off it.