Algeria votes for new parliament

17/05/2007| IslamWeb

Polls have opened for elections in Algeria a day after two bomb explosions in the country left one person dead and several injured.

About 18.8 million Algerians are registered to vote on Thursday for a new parliament that is expected to be dominated by the three parties of a ruling coalition.

Many observers fear a low-turnout on Thursday. More than 10,000 voting stations around the large north African country will close at 8:00pm. (1900 GMT).

Final results are due to be announced on Friday.

Wednesday's explosions in the eastern city of Constatine continued the violent run-up to the vote after three suicide bomb attacks killed 33 people in the capital Algiers on April 11.

A police officer was killed and five other people were injured in the country's third-biggest city, Constantine, 48 hours after the al-Qaeda called on Algerians to boycott the polls en masse.

There have been fears that the recent attacks will prompt a return to the levels of violence experienced in the 1990s.

The poll to choose the 389 members of the lower house of parliament is the third since an Islamist revolt erupted after the cancellation of a national election in January 1992, which a now-outlawed Islamic party was poised to win.

Rubber stamp

Political analysts say that with power in Algeria concentrated in the hands of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the president whose mandate ends in 2009, many Algerians have little interest in parliament and may therefore not bother to vote  anyway.

Algerians tend to believe the assembly exists to rubber stamp the decisions of the executive branch.

Social problems are Algerians' main concern, with unemployment among adults under 30 at 75 per cent.

The National Liberation Front (FLN), is expected to keep its position as the largest single party, with the pro-government Rally for National Democracy (RND) likely to take second place.

The FLN and RND are part of a ruling coalition with the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), a moderate Islamic party.

PHOTO CAPTION

Women walk past electoral posters in Algiers, Wednesday, May 16, 2007. (AP0

Al-Jazeera