Polling stations in Algeria began receiving voters on Thursday morning (July 2nd) to cast their votes in the direct legislative elections to choose members of the National People's Assembly, in a bid presented by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune as an additional step in the project of "renewing institutions" and building what is known as the "new Algeria".

Algerian reports and think tanks said the electoral process is being conducted according to an open-list system that allows voters to rank candidates within a single list, in an attempt to limit the influence of political money and enhance the presence of youth and technocratic competencies within the new parliament.

The Independent National Electoral Authority (ANIE) oversees the entire voting and counting phase, amid official assurances to ensure transparency and address any breaches that may affect the credibility of the results.

The polls will close at 07:00 p.m. Algerian time (09:00 p.m. Damascus time), and the polling stations will immediately start counting operations in the presence of representatives of lists and observers, noting that the Independent National Authority has the authority to extend voting by an additional hour until 8 p.m. in offices that witness a heavy turnout at the last moment.

Research centers predict popular reluctance to vote

Algerian think tanks have expressed concerns about popular reluctance reminiscent of the legacy of the popular movement that shook the country seven years ago, with Robin Frisch, director of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung office in Algiers, stressing that the political event is "important despite the weakness of the election campaigns", and some 24.7 million voters are entitled to choose the 407 members of the National People's Assembly for a five-year term.

Algerian analysts said the unprecedented surge in independent lists is an indication of society's return to politics, while Frisch said the large number of independents reflects disillusionment with traditional parties and an attempt to remobilize politics from outside party frameworks.

Algerian think tanks said that the elections "did not receive the attention of the street", relying in their reading on the "lackluster campaign" and the absence of influential political figures on the lists, in addition to the reliance of the contenders on repeated slogans that do not provide real solutions, considering that the rise of independents by 71% does not reflect a growth in civic awareness, but rather a "deep partisan crisis" and that experience has proven that independents are "just numbers" that add nothing to the legislative work.

Turnout in the 2021 elections was only 23%, the lowest in the country's history, a further decline that will reinforce the impression that large segments of Algerians do not trust political institutions.

A democracy "controlled" with strict limits?

However, the democratic quality of the political system remains controversial, with the Washington-based think tank Freedom House once again classifying Algeria as "not free," and said that despite elections and political parties, actual power remains in the hands of the presidency, the military, and the security services.

Germany's Bertelsmann Transformation Index came to a similar conclusion, arguing that hopes for reform had largely faded, and "Algeria has returned politically and broadly to pre-Arab Spring conditions."

Since the end of the Hirak protests, several opposition parties, journalists, and human rights organizations have expressed regret over the increasingly shrinking political and media space, and Robin Frisch says that there is still political space for democratic procedures, and for this reason, he sees the return of many opposition parties after boycotting the 2021 elections as a positive thing.

Opposition Participates Under Institutional Pressure

The opposition in particular is interpreted in different ways, however, as the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum argues that it does not reflect a political openness as much as it is the result of institutional pressure.

Despite this progress, Robin Frisch sees little room for tangible political change: "Decisive political initiatives do not usually start from parliament," and the "Bertelsmann Transformation Index" described Algeria as a system based on "authoritarian stability," in which the parliament primarily acts as an approver of decisions of the executive branch, at a time when a percentage of Algerians are optimistic that the current 80-year-old Algerian president will be able to work with a parliament that is no longer a problem Entirely from the old networks of the Bouteflika era.