Morocco

Official name:

Kingdom of Morocco

Name in local language:

المملكة المغربية transliterated as al-Mamlakatu al-Magrebiya

Form of government:

Monarchy

Political system:

Parliamentary

Founding date/ Date of independence: 1956 (independence from France and Spain)
Date of Constitution/last reform: 2011 (replacing that of 1996)
Form of state: Unitary, in the process of devolution and decentralization.
Administrative divisions: 12 regions or wilayas and 71 provinces and prefectures
Official language(s): Arabic and Amazigh (since 2011 Constitution)
Other spoken languages: French and Spanish
Official religion: Sunni Islam
Minorities: Christians, Jews, Berbers (cultural minority but ethnic majority) and Saharawi people (originating from the Western Sahara) living in some parts of the territory of Morocco.
Dominant actor(s): King and his circle (makhzen)
Elected institutions of government: Government, Bi-cameral parliament, regional, provincial and municipal councils (urban and rural).
Non-elected institutions of government: King, regional and provincial governors
Party system: multi-party system, organised in three blocks: officialist parties, left-wing parties and islamist parties

Current authorities

Head of state: King Mohamed VI, since 1999
Head of government: Saad-Eddine El Othmani, since 2017
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Nasser Bourita, since 2017
Minister of Interior: Abdelouafi Laftit, since 2017
Head(s) of Legislative Branch: Habib El Malki (USFP), (Lower House) and Hakim Benchamach (PAM) (Upper House)
Composition of legislative branch: Link to graph
Head of the Judiciary: King (president of the High Council of the Judiciary)
Schematic representation of the political system: Link to diagram in PDF