Legislative elections were held in

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , religi ...

on 17 May 2007. 24 political parties and around 100 independent lists with a total of more than 12,000 candidates competed for the 389 seats in the National People's Assembly. While most Algerians voted on May 17, immigrants from Algeria to other countries (especially

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

) and Algerians living in the

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

(i.e. Southern Algeria) and other

nomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...

s and semi-nomads voted on May 16 due to the distance from Algiers, the country's capital. At 35% of the 18.7 million voters, the turnout was the lowest in Algerian history. Several political organisations, notably the Socialist Forces Front, the ex-communist Democratic and Social Movement, leading members of the former

Islamic Salvation Front The Islamic Salvation Front ( ar, الجبهة الإسلامية للإنقاذ, al-Jabhah al-Islāmiyah lil-Inqādh; french: Front Islamique du Salut, FIS) was an Islamist political party in Algeria. The party had two major leaders representi ...

( Abbassi Madani and

Ali Belhadj Ali Benhadj (also Belhadj; ar, علي بلحاج or علي بن الحاج, links=, lit=, translit=; born 16 December 1956) is an Algerian Islamist activist and preacher and cofounder of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) political party, the win ...

), the main faction of the split Islamist

Islah Islah or Al-Islah (الإصلاح ,إصلاح, ') is an Arabic word, usually translated as "reform", in the sense of "to improve, to better, to put something into a better position, fundamentalism, correction, correcting something and removing v ...

Party, and the newly formed organisation

Rachad Rachad ( ar, رشاد) is an Algerian islamist political movement. Rachad claims its goal is to "bring about a fundamental change in Algeria, to break with the political practices in progress since independence and to restore hope to the Algerian ...

, had called on their supporters to boycott these elections. These political groups claimed that the elections were consistently rigged by the government, and that participation merely lent a fundamentally corrupt process undeserved legitimacy. The only notable remaining armed group in Algeria, the

Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb ( ar-at, تنظيم القاعدة في بلاد المغرب الإسلامي, Tanẓīm al-Qā'idah fī Bilād al-Maghrib al-Islāmī), or AQIM, is an Islamist militant organization (of al-Qaeda) that aims to o ...

, issued a video calling participation in the elections "a great sin", adding its voice to the boycott calls. Tight security measures were implemented to protect the elections; however, two bombs exploded in Constantine the day before the election, killing a police officer and wounding five others. Said Bouchair, the head of the national commission of legislative election control, initially reported that ballot boxes in some areas were being stuffed with FLN ballots, that observers were being prevented from attending, and that some areas refused to open ballot boxes before voting began to allow observers to see whether they were empty or not. He then retracted his statement and apologised. About 15% of ballots were spoiled. The Constitutional Council confirmed the results of the election, with slight changes to the voter turn-out rate and number of seats won by some parties, on May 21. It rejected appeals regarding the election on May 30.

Results

Women won 31 seats, which was an increase of eight.APN - Listes des depute de la sixieme legislature 2007-2012
Assemblée populaire nationale, 30 May 2007

References

{{Algerian elections Elections in Algeria

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , religi ...

Legislative election Election and referendum articles with incomplete results