Algeria's parliament has adopted electoral reforms that the government says will modernise the country's institutions and encourage broader participation in democracy. Yet political experts fear the overhaul will only reinforce President Abdelmadjid Tebboune's hold on power.
The package of constitutional amendments, approved unanimously on Tuesday evening, hands the government key roles in organising elections and changes the criteria for who can run either locally or nationally.
After it passed, Interior Minister Said Sayoud welcomed what he said was parliament's commitment to continuing reforms initiated by the president.
The project is aimed at "embedding democratic principles" and laying the foundations for "an electoral process based on transparency, integrity, neutrality and respect for citizens’ freedom of choice", he said.
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Constitution rewritten
The reforms mark the sixth time Algeria has revised its constitution in 12 years, pointed out Kader Abderrahim, a political scientist at Sciences Po university in Paris.
"It seems the aim is to strengthen the power of one clan against another in Algeria, where perhaps more so than elsewhere, institutions are very fragile."
While the government has presented the changes as mainly technical, they stand to have significant political implications, he told RFI.
Notably, the reform reverses changes brought in after 2019 protests that toppled long-standing leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Algeria's National Independent Election Authority (ANIE), created that year to remove elections from executive control, will have key powers withdrawn.
Now, the organisation of ballots, voting material and staffing of polling booths will be handed back to the Interior Ministry. According to the ministry, this restructuring is designed to allow the election body to focus on its core missions.
"This is primarily an attempt by the executive to consolidate its power in the face of other political and historical forces that play a significant role," argued Abderrahim.
He suggested that Tebboune could be looking to reduce the influence of the army, which has historically exercised considerable sway in Algerian politics.
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Election access
Another major change concerns the eligibility criteria for local and national elections. Candidates will no longer have to gather as many signatures of endorsement to qualify.
For legislative elections, 150 signatures will now be required instead of 250.
In theory, this could broaden access and promote pluralism. But in practice, it could also fragment Algeria's opposition further.
The text also stipulates that a certain level of education is required to run for public office, and sets a quota requiring that people under 40 make up a certain percentage of candidates.
Meanwhile the existing quota for women candidates is reduced from half to one-third of the candidate lists.
