The low turnout of the Algerian parliamentary polls augurs ill, reports Fayçal Saouli from Algiers The Algerian parliamentary elections, held on 17 May 2007, brought to the National People's Assembly -- the lower house of parliament -- a total of 22 parties. The elections were preceded by calls for boycott from several parties, especially the banned Islamic Front and the newly-formed Qaeda in the Land of Islamic Maghreb. The National Liberation Front (FLN) lost the majority it had since the 2002 elections. But turnout was the lowest since independence. Only 9.7 million voters showed up at the polling stations, or about 35.6 per cent of eligible voters. The low turnout triggered a duel between the government and the opposition. Interior Minister Noureddin Yazid Zerhouni said the programmes of the participating parties failed to motivate the voters. Opposition leaders disagreed. Lousia Hanoune, leader of the (Trotskyite) Workers' Party, said that the public apathy is the result of the deterioration of living standards caused by the policies of the current government. The FLN now has 133 seats of the People's Assembly, down from 199 in 2002. It needs to form a coalition with other parties to stay in government. Four years ago, the FLN formed a coalition government with two other parties, but it did so voluntarily. Now it has no other choice. However, Algerian political traditions give the president the right to appoint the prime minister, without necessarily the latter being selected from the parliamentary majority. Following a dispute between President Bouteflika and Prime Minister Benflis, a few years ago, the president dismissed Benflis, who was then-leader of FLN and the parliamentary majority, and appointed Ahmed Ouyehia of the National Rally for Democracy (RND) in his place. The FLN's partners in government did well. The RND improved its standing by 14 seats, to a total of 61. And the Islamist Movement of Society for Peace (MSP) now has 52 seats, up from 38 seats. The Trotskyite party of Louisa Hanoune also boosted its position from 21 to 26 seats. And the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) made a strong showing with 19 seats (it had boycotted the 2002 elections in protest against the handling of the turbulence in the Kabylia region). Several small parties have won a total of 50 seats (13 per cent of the total), and some of which is entering the parliament for the first time. Independent candidates won 33 seats, up from their previous 30. This puts the independents in fourth place behind the FLN and its two allies. The MSP was the only Islamist party to perform well in these elections. The National Reform Movement (NRM), which used to have 43 seats, now has three. The rift that emerged in the party's ranks a few months ago, when opponents to NRM leader Abdullah Djaballah threw him out of the party, is evidently the cause for the party's poor showing. In total, Islamic parties now command 60 seats, down from 82. Both the government and the opposition agree that the low turnout wasn't an outcome of the calls for boycott that preceded the elections. However, the government and the opposition have conflicting interpretations of why so few voters appeared at the polling stations. The first party to call for a boycott was the left- leaning Socialist Forces Front (FSS), led by Hocine Alit Ahmed, who's been living in exile in Switzerland since the early 1990s. The FSS said that the Algerian elections would change nothing in the nature of the regime and wouldn't bring back democracy. Other smaller parties, including the Democratic Social Movement and the Communist Party were also in favour of a boycott. The most adamant calls for boycott came from the banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). Abbas Madani, the FIS leader who has been living in Qatar since 2004, and his deputy, Ali , who lives under house arrest in Algeria, both urged the Algerians to stay away from the polls. The turnout, at 35.6, is the lowest ever in Algeria. Even the 2002 elections, which faced similar calls for boycott, drew 47 per cent of voters. Most analysts believe that the low turnout is a reflection of the dwindling faith of Algerian voters in the country's politicians. Interior Minister Zerhouni's claim that Algerian parties failed to entice the voters may not be far off the mark. Of the 6.7 millions who voted, he pointed out, about one million cast empty cards, which indicates that they had no favourite party. Some analysts, however, offered a different interpretation for the low turnout. Instead of inflating the turnout, they claim, the government for once revealed the real numbers.
