Algeria’s FLN wins most seats in polls: Final results

By Abdel Razek Abdallah

ALGIERS (AA) - Algeria’s ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) won the most seats -- 164 out of 462 -- in yesterday’s parliamentary polls, according to official results released Friday.

At a press conference in capital Algiers, Interior Minister Noureddine Bedoui announced that the National Democratic Rally (a coalition partner of the FLN) had come in second with 97 seats, while the Movement of Society for Peace (an alliance of Islamic parties) had won 33 seats.

Thursday’s elections, the minister said, had seen a turnout of 38.25 percent -- a marked decrease on 2012 polls in which 43 percent of the country’s registered voters cast ballots.

In the 2012 election, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s ruling FLN won almost half of the seats in the assembly (220), while the National Rally came in second (68 seats) and the Green Alliance -- a coalition of three Islamic parties -- came in third (48 seats).