The Independent National Electoral Authority in Algeria announced that the turnout in the legislative elections reached 30.2% at the country level, at a time when the counting of votes continued after all polls were closed.

The head of the Independent National Electoral Authority, Muhammad Sharafi, said that the elections took place in good conditions, except for some lapses that do not affect their integrity, adding that the vote counting process requires a large time, up to 4 days, due to the complexity of the electoral process due to the multiplicity of lists compared to the previous elections.

The election authority announced that the vote counting will take place in two stages.

The first is for the lists and the second is for each candidate on the list.

Sharafi had announced earlier the extension of voting in various centers for an additional hour, and indicated that the general percentage of voting in the elections had reached, by four o'clock local time, about 14.5%.

Al-Jazeera correspondents indicated that the turnout for voting was uneven among the states in the early hours, as the percentage in some states reached 17%, while it did not exceed 1% in other states;

But there is no broad participation.

Polling stations in Algeria and the diaspora opened on Saturday morning to 24 million Algerians who are entitled to vote in the early legislative elections, which are being held to select 407 representatives in the People's National Assembly, or what is known as the First Chamber.

More than 22,000 candidates belonging to 2,288 lists are competing in these elections, of which 1,080 are party lists, and 1,208 are independent lists, while the number of female candidates is 5,744.

Tabun's statements

The Algerian president cast his vote at a polling station in the Bouchaoui area in the western suburbs of Algiers, and Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad, members of the government, leaders of political parties and Chief of Staff Major General Said Chanegriha cast their votes in different polling stations.

In statements to reporters - after casting his vote - Tebboune said that he was optimistic about achieving a good participation rate based on what he witnessed of the voting process in a number of states.

Tebboune considered this vote as another building block on the path to establishing democracy, pointing to the turnout of youth and women.

He stressed that the percentage of participation does not matter to him, and he said that what matters to him are those who will be selected by the ballot box to administer the legislative authority, noting that the formation of the next government will depend on whether the majority is loyal or opposed to the policies of the President of the Republic.

He added that those who boycotted the elections are free to do so;

But they have no right to impose their position on others, stressing that these elections are a second building block for change and building a democratic Algeria.

He said that Algeria is on the right path as long as it faces an attack from parties that do not satisfy it to enter the country into democracy from its wide doors, and give its decision to its people, as he put it.

In this context, the Speaker of the Algerian National Assembly (the second chamber of Parliament), Saleh Goujil, said that these elections are an implementation of the demands of the popular movement.

Gogel added - in press statements after casting his vote in the capital - that President Tebboune fulfilled his promises to go towards electing new institutions.

And last Thursday, Tebboune pledged that the fund would be the decisive factor in the elections, while the Independent National Electoral Authority pledged - about a week ago - to protect the votes.

Last March, the Algerian president called for early legislative elections after dissolving Parliament at the beginning of the same month, to be the first legislative elections since the start of the popular movement, which led to the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in the spring of 2019.

A citizen casts his vote at a polling station in Algiers (Anatolia)

Participation rate

Al-Jazeera correspondent, Atef Qadadra, said that the voting took place normally in the 58 states in Algeria.

He added that the Ministry of Interior imposed strict security measures starting last night, pointing to an amendment to the Penal Code to address the so-called attempts to disrupt the electoral process, whether by preventing individuals from casting their votes, or sabotaging polling stations.

The presidential elections in 2019 and the constitutional referendum in 2020 witnessed unprecedented abstentions of 60% and 76%, respectively, according to Agence France-Presse.

This election is the third vote supervised by the Independent Electoral Authority in Algeria, after the presidential elections of December 2019 and the referendum to amend the constitution in November 2020.

voting abroad

For the third and final day, the Algerian community abroad continues to vote in the parliamentary elections.

In France, where the largest Algerian community is based abroad, the voter turnout is still low, according to some testimonies.

Some organizers attribute this to the fact that the turnout for early voting on Thursday and Friday is usually low.

Some Algerians residing in France have called for an increase in the number of parliamentary seats representing the Algerian community, which currently stands at 4.

new electoral system

Algerian parliamentary elections are held on the basis of a new electoral system;

A voter cannot vote for more than one list or vote for a particular list or candidates in another list.

The voter must choose one list, then put a sign next to the names of the candidates he chose in proportion to the number of parliamentary seats allocated to his mandate.

More than half a million people work in the conduct of voting, according to the Independent National Electoral Authority.

The number of parliament seats is distributed according to the size of the electoral district, the largest of which is the wilaya of Algiers, while 8 seats are allocated to electoral districts in the diaspora, including 4 for the community in France.