Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s party and its coalition ally have won a clear majority in parliamentary elections, according to preliminary results released by the interior minister on Friday.
Bouteflika’s National Liberation Front (FLN), which has dominated the North African nation’s politics since its 1962 independence from France, won 164 of the national assembly’s 462 seats, Interior Minister Nourredine Bedoui said.
That is down from 221 in the outgoing parliament.
The FLN’s ally, the Rally for National Democracy (RND), won 97 seats, up from the 68 seats it took in the previous poll in 2012.
Two opposition Islamist lists won 48 seats between them.
The official results will be announced by the constitutional council after any appeals.
The ministry said turnout reached 38 percent, down from just over 43 percent in the 2012 election.
Thursday’s vote was marred by voter disillusionment over what many see as broken government promises and a political system tainted by corruption.
The North African country weathered the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings with massive spending on wages and subsidies that depleted government coffers.
But a 2014 slump in crude oil prices forced the government to raise taxes and mothball many public projects.
Today, in a country of 40 million where half the population is under 30, one young person in three is unemployed.
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