Elections in Algeria

Abstract

On June 12 Algeria's first free elections since independence in 1962 were held, for the local and regional councils. According to official government figures, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) took control of 55 per cent of the 1,500 local councils, with 54.3 per cent of the vote, and two thirds of the 48 regions (wilayat), with 57.4 per cent of the vote. The National Liberation Front (FLN), which has ruled Algeria as the single recognised political party since independence, retained control of only 32 per cent of the local councils and only 14 wilayat, with 28.1 per cent and 27.5 per cent respectively. In every major city Algiers, Oran, Constantine and in many of the others, the FLN was crushed. One of the few large towns that did not fall to the FIS was Tizi-Ouzou, in Kabylia; but that was taken by the Berber nationalist RCD. The official results showed that independents had won 11.7 per cent of the municipal votes, the Assembly for Culture and Democracy (RCD), 2.1 per cent, and the National Party for Solidarity and Development (PNSD), 1.6 per cent. Between 60 and 65 per cent of the electorate turned out to vote, and although it is impossible to be certain how many of those abstaining did so for political reasons it is probable that a large proportion were heeding the abstention calls from two of the main opposition groups former president Ahmed Ben Bella's Movement for Democracy in Algeria (MDA) and Hocine Ait Ahmed's Socialist Forces Front (FFS). Much of the FFS support comes from Berbers (its leader Ait Ahmed is one himself), and the RCD victory in Tizi-Ouzou was based on the lowest turnout (20 per cent) in the country. There had been other indications of support for FFS too; of the four great marches through Algiers before the elections, that of the FFS supporters was the largest.