Algerians vote in early local elections

By Hassan Jibril

ALGIERS, Algeria (AA) – Voting in Algeria’s early local elections kicked off Saturday to elect members of municipal and provincial councils.

Polling stations opened at 08:00 local time (0700 GMT) and will continue until 19:00 (1800 GMT).

A total of 23,717,479 voters are eligible to cast ballot at 13,326 polling stations and 61,676 offices, according to the Algerian Election Authority.

Meanwhile, voting has been going on for the nomads in the desert since Wednesday.

A total of 1,158 candidates are running for 58 provincial council seats with 877 representing party lists and 281 running as independent candidates.

On the other hand, 4,860 party-list candidates and 988 independent candidates are running for the 1,541 municipalities, according to figures by the Independent National Election Authority.

This is the second election in which Algeria has adopted the open list system, which allows voters to arrange the candidates within the same list according to his/her preference. On the contrary, the closed list forced voters to choose the list based on the arrangement set by the party.

This is the second time in less than six months after Algerians voted in the country’s parliamentary elections in June.

* Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar