The Algerian election authority counted more than 23,000 candidates for the parliamentary elections scheduled for June 12, divided equally between parties and independents lists.
This was stated by the head of the Independent Electoral Authority, Muhammad Sharafi, in a press conference after the end of the legal deadlines for candidacy at midnight last night.
According to Sharafi, the total number of candidacy lists amounted to 2,292 lists, including 1,179 party lists and 1,113 independent lists, while the total number of competing candidates reached 23,54 candidates, and these candidates compete for 407 seats in the People's National Assembly (Parliament).
In early March, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune issued a decree dissolving the People's National Assembly and calling for early parliamentary elections.
These elections will witness new electoral rules after the amendment of the electoral law, whereby everyone who has previously held two parliamentary terms is prohibited from running.
An electoral pattern based on the open list was also established, which allows the voter to arrange the candidates within the same list according to his desire, unlike the closed one that required him to choose the list as it is, according to the party’s arrangement without the possibility of disposing of it.
More than 50 parties announced their participation in the parliamentary elections, with the exception of the Socialist Forces Front, the Workers' Party (left), and the Rally for Culture and Democracy (secular), which boycotted the elections, claiming that the conditions were not ready to hold them.