FRIDAY, 4.30PM
AMID opposition cries of fraud, early results show that pro-government parties won Algeria’s first parliamentary elections since the start of an Islamic insurgency after the last election’s results were annulled five years ago.
President Liamine Zeroual’s National Democratic Rally won 155 of the National Assembly’s 380 seats, while the pro-government National Liberation Front took 64, according to Interior Ministry figures released midday Friday. The Movement for a Society of Peace, a moderate Islamic party led by Sheikh Mahfoud Nahnah, came in second with 69 seats, while several other parties split a few dozen seats.
Even before the results were announced, opposition parties were complaining on Friday of ballot box stuffing and charging that observers were not given free access to voting stations. Interior Minister Mustapha Benmansour, who read out the election results during a news conference, declined to comment on the fraud allegations. Voting was monitored by some 240 international observers, in Algeria under the auspices of the United Nations, the Arab League and the Organisation of African Unity.
The Islamic Salvation Front, the party robbed of its imminent election victory in 1992 and later banned, had called for a boycott of the elections. Some 300 000 security forces were deployed around the country to guard against attacks by Muslim militants trying to sabotage the vote. However, two bombs exploded on Thursday near Djelfa, 250kmsouth of the capital, and injured two Algerian election observers.
Zeroual has ensured control of the parliament with a constitutional revision that created an upper house. One-third of its members will be selected by the president, giving him ultimate veto power. Parties are banned from using religion for political purposes.