After poll, Algeria’s largest Islamic party cries foul

By Abdul Razak bin Abdullah

ALGIERS (AA) - The head of Algeria’s largest Islamic party on Friday described unofficial turnout figures for yesterday’s parliamentary poll -- in which the ruling party and a coalition partner won a majority of seats -- as “exaggerated”.

At a press conference in capital Algiers, Interior Minister Noureddine Bedoui put total voter turnout for yesterday’s election at 38.25 percent.

But Abdul Razzaq al-Maqri, head of Algeria’s Movement of Society for Peace, said the number was closer to 25 percent.

“The turnout rate is being exaggerated,” al-Maqri was quoted as saying in a party statement. “The number of voters who boycotted the poll was very large.”

According to al-Maqri, Thursday’s poll was not conducted in a fair and transparent manner and had “failed to reflect the national will”.

He went on to say that his party planned to lodge an appeal against the official poll results with the country’s Constitutional Council.

On Thursday, Abdelwahab Derbal, head of Algeria's official electoral commission, said the commission had received 328 reports of violations, 16 of which had since been referred to the country’s attorney-general.

According to results announced by the interior minister, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) won 164 out of 462 seats in the assembly, while the National Democratic Rally -- a coalition partner of the FLN -- came in second with 97 seats.

Al-Maqri’s Movement of Society for Peace, meanwhile, picked up only 33 seats, according to official results.

On Friday, FLN Secretary-General Djamel Ould Abbes said the FLN was open to forming a new coalition government with any party that supported Bouteflika’s political program.