Faced with Hirak, Algerian president calls early parliamentary elections

As promised, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Thursday called early legislative elections for 12 June, according to the decree calling the elections. 

"Pursuant to the provisions of Article 151, paragraph 2, of the Constitution, the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, has signed on 11 March 2021, the presidential decree 96-01 concerning the convocation of the electoral body for the legislative elections, whose date is set for Saturday, 12 June 2021," the statement said, according to Algeria Press Service agency.

Algeria's last parliamentary elections were held in May 2017 and were won by the National Liberation Front (FLN, the country's former single party) and the National Democratic Rally (RND), the two main parties of the presidential alliance that supported Bouteflika during his fourth and fifth terms.

Once he assumed the presidency, Tebboune promised to implement political and economic changes in an attempt to put an end to the protest movement, Hirak, which demanded the departure of the entire ruling elite. Within a day of his election, Tebboune had already granted pardons to 76 detainees, including Hirak figures. This new gesture of appeasement by the president, just back from a long hospital stay in Germany, came ahead of Hirak's second anniversary on 22 February. In an address to the nation on Thursday, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said: "The blessed Hirak has saved Algeria". 

The upcoming legislative elections will be held on the basis of a new electoral law, which the Algerian president also ratified on Thursday. The law sets out the rules for the financing and control of electoral campaigns. It is forbidden for any candidate to receive donations in cash or in kind from a foreign state or from a natural or legal person of foreign nationality.

Legislative elections were due to be held in 2022, but on the eve of the Hirak anniversary, President Tebboune, elected in December 2019 with a very low turnout in an election boycotted by the protest movement, Hirak, dissolved the People's National Assembly (APN), the lower house of parliament, and announced a limited government reshuffle on 21 February, in an attempt to tackle new rallies and pave the way for the elections. 

In the upcoming elections, Algerians will have to elect the 462 deputies of the eighth legislature of the National People's Assembly for five years, in what will be the second ballot since Tebboune became president following the referendum on the constitution held in November 2020 that grants more powers to the prime minister and the parliament. 

In a gesture of appeasement and an attempt to regain control in the face of the resumption of the Hirak movement in the streets, and to respond to the political crisis that has rocked the government for two years, Algeria's current president Tebboune pledged to take measures aimed at diversifying the economy to decrease dependence on oil and gas, which account for 60 per cent of the state budget and 94 per cent of total export revenues. Algerians have been waiting for the implementation of the economic and political reforms Tebboune promised after succeeding Bouteflika, who stepped down in 2019 following mass protests after two decades in power.  

The North African OPEC member has been under severe financial pressure due to a drastic drop in energy revenues, forcing the government to cut spending and delay some planned investment projects. The Algerian president returned home in early February from Germany, where he underwent foot surgery for complications following a coronavirus infection. During his absence, the country has seen many protests. The need for a generational change at the helm of the country has been one of the reasons behind the protests, first against Bouteflika and now with Tebboune. This time the demonstrators have taken to the streets to protest against the current government, which they believe has changed little from the two decades of Bouteflika's rule. 

Following the resignation of former president Bouteflika, protesters continued their actions demanding a thorough overhaul of the system of government in place since Algeria's independence from France in 1962. These protests were suspended in March 2020 as a result of restrictions imposed by the coronavirus. In Algiers, this new march is the largest demonstration since its suspension on 13 March last year.

The demonstrators continue to demand the dismantling of the political "system" in place since Algeria's independence (1962), which they consider to be synonymous with corruption and authoritarianism. Abdelmadjid Tebboune has already multiplied his calls for "the doors of Parliament to be opened to young people", considering that "they must have political weight".