Osama Barik’s Miracle in Midelt: From Facebook to the Parliament—How the Son of Imlchil Defeated the Region’s Notables!

The Midelt region witnessed a stunning upset in the 2026 parliamentary elections, after the young Abdulaziz Barik (known online as “Osama Barik”) the results announced on the night of September 23, outperforming candidates from the major parties and the politically influential Chabaito family in the region. Barik, a 28-year-old native of the Imlchil region who had previously gained prominence through short videos on Facebook in which he criticized social conditions and called for the development of rural areas, ran on the ticket of the Unity and Democracy Party (Al-Rubini symbol), a party previously unrepresented in parliament. Through a grassroots campaign reminiscent of “Children of the People,” he managed to defeat Marwan Shabaito, who had recently joined the Authenticity and Modernity Party following a political feud with the National Rally of Independents, thereby ending the dominance of the establishment and securing the first parliamentary seat in his party’s history.