ALGIERS, May 26, 2012 (AFP)
ALGIERS, May 26, 2012 (AFP)
Algerian Islamists disrupted the first session of Algeria’s new parliament Saturday by waving placards condemning alleged fraud in the recent elections before walking out of the chamber.
The 49 members of the three-party Green Algeria Alliance (AVV), a moderate Islamist coalition, staged their protest immediately after the roll-call of the newly-elected deputies.
It was not clear if they would return for the resumption of proceedings later in the day, when the 462-seat house dominated by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) was to elect its new speaker.
The AVV, which had confidently predicted victory in the May 10 elections, alleged fraud after it won fewer than 50 seats.
On Thursday the constitutional council accepted only 13 of the 167 appeals filed after the polls, yielding minor changes in the parliament’s breakdown of seats.
The FLN saw its tally reduced to 208 from 221, while Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia’s National Rally for Democracy lost two seats but remains in second spot with 68 lawmakers, forming a comfortable presidential majority with the FLN.
The AVV was deprived of one seat but allocated another three, making its total 49, while the Socialist Forces Front, Algeria’s oldest opposition party that returned to the electoral fray this year after a 10-year boycott, saw its tally rise to 27.
The main beneficiary of the constitutional council’s redistribution was the Workers Party, which was granted seven more seats and with 26, attained the legal threshold to form a parliamentary group.
Opposition parties and other critics argue that the results announced by the interior ministry and confirmed by the constitutional council have little correlation with reality.
