Algeria: Former ruling party, the ‘National Liberation Front’ has won, overall, in local elections

The National Electoral Authority in Algeria announced, on Tuesday, that the former ruling party, “National Liberation Front” issued the official preliminary results for the early elections at the level of municipal and state councils that took place on Saturday, Anadolu News Agency reports.

The “National Liberation Front” topped in local elections, according to preliminary official results after five months of the party’s victory in the parliamentary elections.

During a press conference, the head of the Election Authority, Mohamed Sharafi, said that the “National Liberation Front” party won first place by obtaining the majority in 696 municipalities (out of 1541 municipalities), including 124 municipalities with an absolute majority.

The “Democratic National Rally” party (moderate) took second place, by obtaining the majority in 589 municipalities, including 58 with an absolute majority.

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Independents came in third place; they achieved a majority of 435 municipalities, including 91 with an absolute majority.

Also in the elections of the state councils, the “National Liberation Front” party topped the preliminary results by obtaining 471 seats and a relative majority in 25 states (out of 58), as no party obtained an absolute majority in any state.

Independents achieved second place with 443 seats and a relative majority in 10 states; the “Democratic National Rally” party took third place with 366 seats and a relative majority in 13 states.

These are official temporary results, where the Constitutional Court is supposed to render the final results within 10 days of receiving the counting minutes and the appeals of the participating lists, as prescribed in the election law.

The head of the Electoral Authority announced that the election recorded a turnout of 36.58 per cent in municipal councils and 34.76 per cent in state councils.

In June, the turnout in the parliamentary elections was 30.2 per cent, which is the lowest in the country’s history. The National Liberation Front party also topped the results of these elections.

The establishment of the “National Liberation Front” dates back to the period of independence from France in 1962. The party was led by the former president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika (1999-2019), who was forced to resign by a popular uprising on 2 April, 2019.

Algerians protest president’s bid for 5th term – Cartoon [Mohammad Sabaaneh/Middle East Monitor]

The number of 1158 lists participated in the state council elections, including 877 party lists and 281 for independents.

While in municipal elections, a number of 5848 lists participated, which are 4860 lists representing 40 political parties and 988 lists of independents.

This election is considered the second that has been implemented with the open list system in Algeria, after the parliamentary elections.

The open list means that the voter is allowed to choose candidates from the members of the same list, as he wishes, unlike the closed list that required him to choose the entire list as it is, according to the party’s arrangement without the possibility of changing it.

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