The recent legislative elections, held on June 12, 2021, in Algeria, are an important political event, coming against the backdrop of the Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s decision last February to dissolve the National People’s Assembly, elected in 2017.  The elections are perceived as an attempt by the Algerian president to eradicate the legacy of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and help bring about fundamental changes in the political system, which President Tebboune has repeatedly called for. The elections took place amid calls for a boycott, low turnout, and a new electoral system.

A new electoral system

According to the legal order issued by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune last March, the National People’s Assembly now has 407 members, instead of 462, and seats are distributed among the electoral districts according to population, with one seat allocated for every 120,000 inhabitants, and an additional seat for the remaining population amounting to 60,000 inhabitants.  Districts that have a population of less than 200,000 inhabitants should be represented by at least three seats. A further 8 seats are allocated to represent the Algerian community abroad. 

The new electoral system is based on the ” electoral threshold” system, whereby an electoral list is required to obtain a minimum 5% of votes, and those that do not reach this threshold are excluded. The number of seats that each list  obtains is calculated according to the number of votes it has won. The candidates within the same list are organized according to the votes they obtained, giving preference to the younger candidate if two candidates have equal votes, and if the two candidates with equal votes are male and female, preference will be given to women. Thus, the electoral law relies on proportional voting for the open list for the first time in the history of Algeria, to limit the impact of political money.

Key aspects of the electoral scene

Timing: These legislative elections come at an unusual time as they were scheduled to take place next year. The decision for early elections was imposed by President Tebboune, last February, to move forward with the dissolution of the Legislative Council, which was elected in 2017 under Bouteflika’s rule, and was scheduled to last until 2022. Tebboune tried to market this decision as part of the path to fundamental change including building institutions that can be fully trusted by the Algerian people. Tebboune pledged to make political and economic changes as a result of protests that called for the removal of the entire ruling elite who were allies of former President “Bouteflika” and controlled the majority of the dissolved House of Representatives.

The push for political reform: These elections come as part of Algerian efforts to reform the political system after the movement that toppled the Bouteflika regime. It aims to bring to an end the transitional phase that Algeria is going through. After the Algerian presidential elections, which resulted in the victory of the current president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the legislative elections are the second building block in building the new Algerian system, to be followed by the municipal and local elections. This is what the Algerian president refers to as the ‘three electoral steps’ to restoring power to the people.

These elections, taking place under the banner “Dawn of Change”, are the third time Algerians have gone to the poles since the Hirak movement, coming only a year and a half after the presidential elections held in December 2019, and the referendum on amending the constitution held on November 1, 2020.

The presence of independents: The 2021 elections included the largest participation of independent candidates in history, which reflects, in part, the decline in confidence in the traditional existing parties, even holding them responsible for the political, economic and social crises that Algeria is going through. The presence of independents can also be attributed to the political opportunities that have arisen after the Hirak movement and after the ruling party was removed from power. Although the electoral threshold is one of the obstacles that the independents face, they were encouraged by the government who granted candidates under the age of 40 funding for their electoral campaigns.

The Amazigh tribal region: Historically, there is a state of mistrust between the Amazigh tribal region and the central authority in Algeria, and therefore there has been very low electoral participation there in all elections held since independence. While the official figures for the 2017 legislative elections indicate 17% voter participation in Tizi Ouzou, and 18% in Bejaia; Only 17 out of 500 polling stations were open on the morning of the election in Bejaia, and all offices were closed at noon. Also, 136 polling stations and 229 offices were closed in Tizi Ouzou due to accidents, including vandalism. The Rally for Culture and Democracy and the Socialist Forces Front – the most popular parties in the region – also announced that they would not participate in the ballot. The news agency “AFP” quoted the vice-president of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights as saying that riots took place in Bejaia, in addition to the tense situation in many villages of Bouira.

Calls for Boycott: The legislative elections were held despite calls from activists of the Hirak  and opposition forces to boycott them. They considered the elections “a farce”, “rushed” and “reckless”. However, the Algerian president and the government ignored these calls. It’s clear that the government was determined to complete the electoral process and call its results, irrespective of voter turnout. With the participation of Islamic forces and  others affiliated with the old regime; the secular and leftist forces preferred the option of boycotting the elections, which was of course reflected in the election results and therefore the composition of the Council.

Delayed Results: It is customary to announce the official preliminary results of the Algerian legislative elections on the first day after the polling. However, the head of the National Election Authority clarified that the results would not be announced the next day, but rather within 4 or 5 days as per the new electoral system. It requires waiting for all counts to arrive at the authority’s headquarters, the need to calculate the electoral coefficient to exclude lists that did not pass the electoral threshold of 5% and finally they would need to arrange candidates within the different lists according to the open proportional list system. The official results were announced on the evening of the third day after the polling day. The achievement of announcing the results within 72 hours, based on the new system, was described by the head of the Independent National Electoral Authority as a miracle.

Preempting Results and Accusations of Fraud: Some parties tried to preempt the official announcement of the election results, such as the leaders of the National Liberation Party, who  announced, on the same day, the party’s lead in the election results. The Movement of Society for Peace – the most prominent Islamic party in the elections, announced on June 13, that it had topped the results in most states. and warned that “any attempts to change these results will have bad consequences for the country.” The party called on the Algerian president to “protect the expressed popular will, based on what was promised”.

Election results

 The results of the elections revealed a number of key facts:

(1) Low Participation: According to the preliminary data announced by the Independent National Electoral Authority, the participation rate in the legislative elections was about 23%. Which means that out of the approximately 24 million people entitled to vote, about 5.6 million people cast their votes. This is a low number compared to previous elections, as the participation rate averaged around 35.70% in the last legislative elections 2017, 42.90% in the 2012 legislative elections and 40% participation in the first presidential elections after the Hirak.

This decline in voter participation is significant and may be interpreted as a lack of popular confidence in the electoral process. It raises doubts regarding political transformation in the post- Bouteflika era.

(2) The Main Political Forces: the Algerian legislative elections witnessed the continued domination of the National Liberation Front, with more than a quarter of the seats. The National Democratic Rally party affiliated with the former regime, which participated in the presidential alliance supporting former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, also captured more than half of the seats it won in the previous elections. The Future Front party, which was formed in 2012 from dissident leaders of the National Liberation Front, won 48 seats. The Society for Peace Movement and the National Building Movement – which broke off from the Society for Peace – together won about a quarter of the seats to form a prominent Islamic bloc.

Thus, the results of the elections reflect how forces aligned with former regime and Islamic forces benefited from the boycott. They benefitted from being well organized. Which allowed them to win a large number of seats in the National People’s Assembly. However, the success of independent lists was one of the biggest surprises in the elections, and they collectively formed the second force in the assembly, winning 78 seats.

(3) Representation of women and youth: Women won 34 seats in the parliament, representing 8.35% of the total number of representatives and 140 seats were won by people under the age of 40. Also 75% of the members of the new council are holders of university degrees.

Quotas of the different lists of seats in the Algerian National People’s Assembly 2021

The format is designed based on the official provisional results announced by the Independent National Electoral Authority (June 15, 2021).