Country profile
Western Sahara
Africa · Northern Africa
EH · ESH
- Capital
- El Aaiún
- Population
- 600,904
- Area
- 266,000 km²
- Democracy index
- 8
- Regime type
- Closed Autocracy
Events
Ballots from Western Sahara
The latest elections, referendums, and opinion polls from Western Sahara. Community totals are not official results.
No published ballots yet
No public ballots yet
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Classification
Democracy profile
The score and regime label are assigned by Porto Voto using our in-house democracy index and classification framework, not ratings from governments or external agencies.
Democracy index
8/100
Regime type
Closed Autocracy
Western Sahara remains a non self governing territory characterized by a profound lack of political agency for its local population. The majority of the territory is under the de facto administrative control of Morocco, which maintains a centralized security presence and permits no meaningful political competition or independent civil society activity, while the interior areas controlled by the Polisario Front operate under a highly centralized, militarized leadership structure that severely restricts political pluralism and dissent. In both zones, the absence of an independent judiciary, the suppression of public assembly, and the state controlled nature of political discourse prevent any form of democratic process. The ongoing international dispute over the sovereignty of the region continues to dictate its governance, ensuring that democratic norms remain nonexistent and that power resides entirely with external or entrenched military authorities.
Last evaluation:
How we classify regimes →World Factbook
Country background
A concise introduction to Western Sahara, together with notes on how power and law are organized, to put local ballots in context.
Western Sahara is a non-self-governing territory on the northwest coast of Africa bordered by Morocco, Mauritania, and Algeria. After Spain withdrew from its former colony of Spanish Sahara in 1976, Morocco annexed the northern two-thirds of Western Sahara and claimed the rest of the territory in 1979, following Mauritania's withdrawal. A guerrilla war with the Polisario Front contesting Morocco's sovereignty ended in a 1991 cease-fire and the establishment of a UN peacekeeping operation.
As part of this effort, the UN sought to offer a choice to the peoples of Western Sahara between independence (favored by the Polisario Front) or integration into Morocco. A proposed referendum on the question of independence never took place due to lack of agreement on voter eligibility. The approximately 1,600 km- (almost 1,000 mi-) long defensive sand berm, built by the Moroccans from 1980 to 1987 and running the length of the territory, continues to separate the opposing forces, with Morocco controlling the roughly three-quarters of the territory west of the berm.
There are periodic ethnic tensions between the native Sahrawi population and Moroccan immigrants. Morocco maintains a heavy security presence in the territory. The UN revived direct talks about the territory between Morocco, the Polisario Front, Algeria, and Mauritania in December 2018.