The 105 seats of the FLN party are far below the 204 seats required to obtain a majority in the 407-seat parliament.

The head of the election authority stated that the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) has long been the country’s largest political party and won the most seats in Saturday’s parliamentary elections.

However, its 105 seats are far below the 204 seats required to obtain a majority in the 407-seat parliament. The Islamic Social Movement for Peace (MSP) party won 64 seats and independent candidates won 78 seats.

“The driving force for peaceful change initiated [with the protests] It is being strengthened,” said Mohamed Jorfi, the head of the electoral authority, speaking of the election.

Saturday’s vote is aimed at opening the way for the “New Algeria” declared by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to end the era of corruption and bring a new face to the North African country.

However, after the vote, the estimated turnout rate was 30%, and the Chirac democratic protest movement resisted the election just like the traditional opposition parties.

Most of the elected members of Parliament are expected to support Tebboune’s plans, including economic reforms.

Saturday’s vote was also held after the 2019 presidential election and last year’s referendum on the revised constitution, but many Algerians still believe that the real power is in the hands of the security forces.

Turnout in legislative elections is the lowest in at least 20 years. In contrast, the support rate for the last legislative vote in 2017 was 35.7%.

The biggest difference from the previous elections is that the number of independents who won seats in the parliament is much higher, while the share reserved by Islamists is roughly the same as before.

Call for boycott

The opposition Chirac movement called for a boycott after its seven leaders were arrested on Thursday.

It mobilized hundreds of thousands in 2019 and forced the long-term president Abdulaziz Bouteflika to resign after running for the fifth term.

The campaign, which was interrupted for nearly a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, returned to the streets in February and survived arrests, presidential elections, and part of the constitutional referendum aimed at burying it.

But the government increased its crackdown on Chirac last month, halting protests and arresting hundreds of activists who ignored the new restrictions on public gatherings.

Seven major protest activists, including the main opposition figure Karim Tabbou, were arrested on Thursday, and on Friday the police deployed a large number of police in the capital to prevent the Chirac movement from launching anti-government protests.