About a week after the Constitutional Court announced the final results of the legislative elections , the new members of the first chamber of the Algerian parliament are expected to be sworn in on Tuesday, July 28, signaling the start of the new legislative term, amidst non-public consultations within the majority parties to agree on the figure who will lead the legislative institution during the coming years.
The inauguration of the National People's Assembly is in accordance with Article 133 of the Constitution, which stipulates that the legislative term must begin a few days after the Constitutional Court announces the final election results. The first session will be chaired by the oldest member of parliament, assisted by the two youngest members, within the framework of a temporary bureau tasked with overseeing the procedures for verifying membership and opening the new parliamentary term.
Prior to the official session, the National People's Assembly scheduled July 26 and 27 to receive elected representatives from the provinces within the country and the constituencies of the diaspora abroad, in order to complete the registration procedures and submit administrative files. Meanwhile, the elected representatives received text messages specifying the date of the membership verification session, which will begin on Tuesday morning.
The importance of the inaugural session is not limited to the protocol aspect, but it constitutes the beginning of the organizational path of the new council, as the deputies are expected to elect the Speaker of the National People’s Assembly the following day, before moving on the third day to elect the Vice-Presidents, the heads of the standing committees and their deputies and rapporteurs, which allows the legislative and oversight work of the institution to begin.
Article 131 of the Constitution stipulates that the Speaker of the National People’s Assembly is elected for a full legislative term, while Article 134 specifies the mechanisms for forming the various bodies of the Assembly, in order to ensure that Parliament can carry out its duties in studying draft laws and monitoring the work of the government.
Although legal texts regulate election procedures, the selection of the Speaker of Parliament has historically been governed by political balances and consultations among the majority parties and various decision-makers, given the sensitivity of the position. If a single candidate is agreed upon, the process proceeds smoothly. However, if there are multiple candidates, the members of Parliament resort to a secret ballot, requiring an absolute majority for the first round. If this is not achieved, a second round is held, in which the candidate with a relative majority wins.
The position of Speaker of the National People’s Assembly is of particular importance, as it enjoys an advanced protocol ranking in the state, and gives its occupant a pivotal role in conducting legislative work, representing the Assembly internally and externally, overseeing the agenda, as well as participating in a number of consultations and constitutional institutions.
Attention is now focused on the identity of the new president of the Zighout Youcef building, given the lack of consensus among the majority parties on a specific candidate. Several names are circulating in political and media circles, including former governor Attallah Moulati, a technocrat with extensive experience in administration, and Mounther Bouden, Secretary General of the National Democratic Rally party, which came in second in the party rankings and is the outgoing vice-president of the council.
However, Bouden may not secure the support of the National Liberation Front (FLN) given the existing tensions between the two rival parties, despite their shared affiliation with the ruling coalition. This could lead to the selection of a neutral figure capable of ensuring consensus among the various blocs, as occurred in the previous term with the election of Ibrahim Bougali, from the Free Bloc, as Speaker of the National People's Assembly. Regional considerations may also play a role. In the past, the prevailing trend has been to choose a figure from the southern provinces of Algeria to head the Assembly, which could ultimately favor Attallah Moulati or another figure from that region.
The new council enters its work under a parliamentary structure that maintained the superiority of the pro-government parties, after the Constitutional Court confirmed in its final results that the National Liberation Front leads with 91 seats, followed by the National Democratic Rally with 74 seats, then the Future Front with 56 seats, the National Construction Movement with 40 seats, the independent lists with 33 seats, and the People's Voice Party with 16 seats. These are, in general, the blocs that are expected to support the government and the president's program.
On the opposition side, the Islamist-oriented Movement of Society for Peace appears with 43 seats, as does the Socialist Forces Front with 12 seats, the Justice and Development Front and the Rally for Culture and Democracy with four seats each, the Workers' Party with three seats, in addition to other parties that obtained limited representation.
This parliamentary map gives the presidential majority a clear advantage in deciding the presidency of the council and distributing the various positions within it, taking into account the balances between the parties participating in supporting the executive authority, which makes the ongoing negotiations focus mainly on how to share responsibilities within the council office and the standing committees.
The Constitutional Court announced the final results on July 18 after ruling on 320 appeals, accepting 43 of them and rejecting the rest for lack of merit or procedural reasons. The court also exercised its authority to automatically correct the results after discovering irregularities that affected the outcome in several polling stations, leading to adjustments in the allocation of some seats in several provinces, including Algiers, Bouira, Djelfa, Mila, Oran, and Chlef.
The final results kept the national participation rate at 21.24 percent, the same rate announced by the Independent National Electoral Authority, with some technical adjustments made to certain figures after reviewing the minutes and appeals.
The statistics accompanying the results show that the new council includes 126 deputies who are under forty years old, which is equivalent to about 31 percent of the total members, while the number of women reached 25 deputies, or 6.14 percent, while 312 deputies hold a university level, which represents more than three-quarters of the council members.
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