ALGIERS, 18 February 2007 — Algeria will hold parliamentary elections on May 17, an official decree published by the newspaper El-Moudjahid said yesterday.
The oil-exporting North African country’s 380-seat Parliament is controlled by the conservative National Liberation Front (FLN), led by Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, a close ally of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
MPs are elected for a five-year term in multi-seat constituencies by proportional representation. The FLN won 199 seats during the last election in 2002 and is again expected to do well, with Belkhadem continuing as prime minister.
The second was the pro-government Rally for National Democracy (RND) with 47 seats. Both parties are members of a ruling coalition of parties. Islah, the main opposition party, won 43 seats.
In Algeria, the presidency is the most powerful office of state with the prime minister playing the role of coordinator between cabinet and presidency. Presidential elections are scheduled for April 2009. The decision ends speculation that Bouteflika planned to push the election back to October to coincide with voting for local assemblies.
The announcement of an election date came in the shadow of coordinated bombings Tuesday by militants that cast doubt on the government’s centerpiece policy of defusing violence with amnesties for fighters. The North African nation has been steadily emerging from an Islamic insurgency that killed more than 150,000 people in the 1990s, and such carefully planned attacks are rare in today’s Algeria. Six people were killed and about 30 injured.
