Algerians are voting in parliamentary elections on Thursday, with cost-of-living concerns, questions over political freedoms and the national football team's World Cup run all competing for public attention.
Nearly 25 million registered voters across Africa's largest country by territory are being asked to choose from 1,235 candidates competing for 407 seats in the lower house of parliament. The deputies will serve five-year terms.
Turnout is expected to be one of the key tests of the vote, after campaign events drew limited public interest. The government declared Thursday a paid national holiday in an effort to encourage people to cast their ballots.
Many Algerians appear more focused on everyday pressures than electoral politics, with purchasing power, inflation and declining public services dominating public concerns. The vote is also taking place against a backdrop of shrinking space for political opposition, independent media and trade unions.
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There is another major distraction: football. Algeria's national team is due to face Switzerland in a World Cup knockout match early Friday, and many football-mad Algerians have been following the tournament more closely than the election campaign.
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Turnout challenge
The outgoing pro-government majority holds about 300 of the lower house's 407 seats. The Islamist Movement of Society for Peace - known by its French acronym MSP - is the second-largest political force, with 64 seats.
But the run-up to the vote has been marked by controversy over the exclusion of candidates. Some MSP figures were among 269 candidates barred from standing, along with former leaders and activists from the Hirak protest movement.
The Hirak pro-democracy movement helped force the resignation of long-serving president Abdelaziz Bouteflika in 2019, after two decades in power. Since then, rights groups and opposition figures have accused the authorities of steadily tightening restrictions under President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who was re-elected to a second term in 2024.
Algeria's electoral authority said the rejected candidates had been banned because of "links to illicit financial networks" and "suspicious political activities".
Security measures were reportedly visible outside polling stations in the capital Algiers on Wednesday, ahead of the vote.
In southern Algeria and the Sahara Desert regions, voting was brought forward by 48 hours to allow nomadic communities to take part. Ballot boxes were transported in off-road vehicles belonging to the administration and escorted by police in Land Rovers.
Voting among Algeria's large diaspora also took place earlier, on Saturday and Sunday, at consular offices. Around 854,225 Algerians are registered to vote abroad, many of them in France, which is home to the largest Algerian community overseas. Algeria's state news agency APS reported high turnout and what it described as a "family atmosphere" at polling stations abroad.
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Campaigns move to the streets
The government also brought forward end-of-year school exams to free up classrooms for use as polling stations. Teachers are often called on to help staff them in exchange for a daily allowance.
With many campaign venues largely empty, parties and independent candidates shifted tactics, holding smaller "grassroots meetings" in streets, markets and popular cafes.
One widely shared video broadcast last week showed the head of a political party trying - unsuccessfully - to persuade a young man to vote, capturing the challenge faced by candidates seeking to mobilise a sceptical electorate.
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Even so, parties have continued to press their messages. The presidential majority, led by the long-dominant National Liberation Front, or FLN, has called for strong turnout, arguing that broad participation would strengthen Algeria at home as it faces regional and geopolitical challenges.
The opposition Workers' Party, which has Trotskyist roots, has campaigned for higher pensions and wages, while opposing mining reforms it says favour foreign investors.
The Socialist Forces Front, one of Algeria's main democratic opposition parties, has urged the release of political prisoners and called for greater media freedom. Its leader has also told voters that boycotting the elections would only benefit the authorities.
(with newswires)
