First female prime minister named in Morocco after winning elections

What the report says

Fatima Zahra El Mansouri has been named Morocco’s first female prime minister after her centrist Authenticity and Modernity Party (Pam) won the most seats in last week’s parliamentary elections, BBC Africa reported. Her appointment by King Mohammed VI also makes her only the second woman to lead a government in the Arab world, after Tunisia’s Najla Bouden.

BBC Africa said El Mansouri, 50, is a lawyer by training and has served for years as mayor of Marrakesh. She has also held a ministerial post in Morocco’s previous coalition government. The king selected her over Fouzi Lekjaa, a senior figure in the same party and head of Morocco’s football federation.

Under Morocco’s constitutional system, the monarch appoints the head of government from the party that finishes first in House of Representatives elections. Pam won 97 seats in the 395-member chamber, short of the 198 needed for an absolute majority, so El Mansouri will need to build a coalition to govern. BBC Africa noted that her party has strained ties with the National Rally of Independents, while the Islamist Justice and Development Party returned with a stronger showing and said it would remain in opposition.

The appointment is significant because it marks a rare female leadership breakthrough in the region, while also highlighting that real governing power in Morocco remains largely with the king.