Algeria’s ruling party gains majority in election results

The National Liberation Front has won a majority in yesterday’s Algerian legislative election with 164 votes, a marked decline than in 2012 where the party won 221 seats.

The national alliance with the Rally for National Democracy lead by Ahmed Ouyahia was successful in gaining an increase in seats with 97 seats won compared to 69 in 2012.

Read: How the empty ballot boxes echo Algeria’s hollow hope

The secular Rally for Culture and Democracy performed poorly with only 9 seats gained whilst the Islamic coalition of the Movement for Society and Peace as well as the Front for Change won 33 seats, a decrease in number where Islamist parties performed better in 2012 as part of the Green Algeria Alliance.

Revealing the results in a press conference, Interior Minister Noureddine Bedoui confirmed that voter participation yesterday was 38.25 per cent, lower than that of 2012 where 43 per cent was recorded and only slightly more than the poor result of 2007’s 35 per cent.

This year’s election has been marked by voter apathy and abstention as Algerian distrust in the electoral system representing them grows ever higher. Despite an independent electoral commission and the presence of 299 observers, dozens of cases of fraud were recorded and posted online with 385 irregularities bought to the attention of the commission’s head, Abdelwahab Derbal.

The FLN has ruled Algeria since independence in 1962 and is headed by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, an ailing 81-year-old whose presidential term will end in 2019.