Islamists walk out of Algerian Parliament
Islamist lawmakers walked out of the inaugural session of Algeria’s parliament on Saturday to protest against an election they say was rigged to hand a majority to the ruling elite’s party.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Islamists-walk-...
They held up placards reading “No to fraud!” during the session which was the first meeting since the, the first time May electionr had met since a May 10 election, and then walked out. The Islamist Green Algeria Alliance and two smaller Islamist parties who between them have 60 seats in the 462-seat parliament.
Their continued absence from the Algerian parliament could cause problems for the reform of the constitution which President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has promised for this year. . The islamists earlier declined to participate in government posts as they had in the previous government. The government denied accusations of fraud in the elections and EU and Arab League monitors provided no indication of ballot fraud although the EU monitors had requested a copy of the electoral voters lists but were not allowed to see it.
The remaining members elected Larbi Ould Khelifa as speaker.The 24 deputies of the Trotskyist Workers’ Party left before the vote, saying it did not concern them.
On Thursday the constitutional council accepted only 13 of the 167 appeals filed after the poll, yielding minor changes in the 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 majority with the FLN.
Their continued absence from the Algerian parliament could cause problems for the reform of the constitution which President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has promised for this year. . The islamists earlier declined to participate in government posts as they had in the previous government. The government denied accusations of fraud in the elections and EU and Arab League monitors provided no indication of ballot fraud although the EU monitors had requested a copy of the electoral voters lists but were not allowed to see it.
The remaining members elected Larbi Ould Khelifa as speaker.The 24 deputies of the Trotskyist Workers’ Party left before the vote, saying it did not concern them.
On Thursday the constitutional council accepted only 13 of the 167 appeals filed after the poll, yielding minor changes in the 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 majority with the FLN.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Islamists-walk-...