In Algeria, early legislative elections are held on Saturday.
The 24 million voters must elect the 407 deputies of the National People's Congress.
Against a background of repression of the Hirak, a protest movement born in 2019, the government hopes to acquire legitimacy through the ballot box.
But participation is likely to be low.
DECRYPTION
Algerians are called to the polls.
On Saturday, early legislative elections are organized to elect the 407 deputies of the National People's Congress (APN), the lower house of Parliament.
This is the first renewal vote since the departure of Abdelaziz Bouteflika and the start of the protest and popular demonstrations of the Hirak.
Born in 2019, this opposition movement called for an end to corruption and the departure of Bouteflika.
He now rejects this election, against the backdrop of the repression of the regime in power.
On Thursday, several journalists were arrested.
Journalists and opponents arrested
They were all arrested almost at the same time in several places in Algiers.
In all, we are talking about ten opponents arrested across the country.
Europe 1 contacted the mother of Khaled Drareni, a freelance journalist, who had been unreachable for several hours on Thursday.
The latter was able to exchange with him during the night.
He confirmed to her that he was being held at the Antar military barracks, the headquarters of the domestic intelligence services.
Her lawyer, Me Zoubida Assoul, is also president of the UCP political party, the Union for Change and Progress.
She could have stood for election, but like many other opposition parties, under these conditions, she preferred to boycott the ballot.
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"Today we have 217 prisoners of conscience, intellectuals, journalists, young people, students, women, old people, old women. Politically, I cannot associate myself with such a masquerade because my compatriots are still in prison, because a lawyer is in prison, because he was the lawyer of other harakists ", she denounces.
At least 222 people are currently imprisoned for acts related to Hirak and / or individual freedoms, according to the National Committee for the Release of Prisoners (CNLD).
The power in place considers that the Hirak demonstrations no longer need to be since a new president has been elected and that new legislative elections will therefore take place on Saturday.
The stake of participation
Initially scheduled for 2022, these legislative elections were brought forward after the reform of the Constitution in 2020. The challenge for the power in place: to renew its legitimacy and take a further step towards the normalization of the country, in a security and economic context catastrophic. Participation will be particularly scrutinized after two elections marked by historic abstention: 60% for the 2019 presidential election and 76% for the 2020 constitutional referendum.
On the eve of the election, however, difficult to mobilize the 24 million Algerians called to the polls. On the white walls of Algiers, a few carefully aligned posters show the same faces several times. In the streets of the capital, these elections are almost a non-event. Many Algerians are affected by these arrests and the feeling that nothing has changed in two years discourages most from voting. "No, I would not go to vote, because that does not interest me", confides an Algerian woman. "I know there will be no change in Algeria. I don't want to know, I don't want to know."
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"My brother is in prison. He is a prisoner of conscience. They caught him on his birthday, he was 19 years old," confides another passer-by, who will not vote either.
The regime accommodates, in advance, a possible strong abstention, while hoping for a participation rate between 40% and 50%.
Voters must choose from nearly 1,500 lists, more than half of which are displayed as "independent", or more than 13,000 candidates.