PPS Secures Parliamentary Group Status After PND Deputy Joins Its Ranks

16:55

The Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS) has secured the minimum number of lawmakers required to form a parliamentary group in Morocco’s House of Representatives after deputy Hanane Zmizem joined its ranks, according to a party source cited by Yabiladi.

Zmizem was elected under the banner of the Party of Neo-Democrats (PND) in the regional women’s constituency covering Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceïma. Her move gives the PPS a total of 20 deputies, allowing the party to meet the threshold set by Parliament’s internal rules.

A crucial seat for the PPS

Article 40 of the House of Representatives’ rules of procedure requires every parliamentary group to have at least 20 members. The PPS entered the current legislature with 19 seats, leaving it one deputy short of the required threshold.

The arrival of Zmizem therefore has an immediate institutional consequence: it enables the socialist party to complete its parliamentary group rather than operate below the minimum membership requirement.

The same provision allows an unaffiliated deputy, or one who does not belong to a parliamentary group or grouping, to join an existing parliamentary formation after its establishment.

Move reshapes a newly created parliamentary alliance

Zmizem’s decision also changes the balance of a parliamentary grouping announced only two days earlier by four political parties: the Front of Democratic Forces, the Party of Equity, the Party of Neo-Democrats and the Party of Unity and Democracy.

The four parties had presented their six-member parliamentary grouping as an effort to introduce new momentum into parliamentary activity, with a focus on strengthening legislative initiatives and the capacity to put forward proposals.

With Zmizem now moving to the PPS, the newly formed alliance is reduced from six members to five.

The development highlights the fluid nature of parliamentary affiliations during a legislature, particularly among smaller political formations seeking to preserve or expand their institutional weight.

Parliamentary formations subject to mid-term changes

Morocco’s parliamentary groups and groupings are established at the beginning of the legislative term, but the composition of these formations can be revised during the third year of the legislature, notably during the April session.

The PPS’s latest move illustrates how a single change in affiliation can have consequences beyond one political party, affecting the composition and numerical strength of several parliamentary formations at once.

For the PPS, however, the outcome is straightforward: the arrival of Hanane Zmizem provides the 20th seat needed to reach the statutory threshold and formally consolidate its position as a parliamentary group in the House of Representatives.