Algerian Radio
The polling stations for the legislative elections were closed nationwide today, Thursday, at exactly 8:00 PM following the end of the voting process. This was immediately followed by the start of the vote counting in the presence of representatives of the candidates participating in this electoral event.
The Independent National Authority of Elections (ANIE) had decided to extend the voting period across all polling stations nationwide by one hour (from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM) to enable citizens to exercise their right to vote.
The Organic Law relating to the electoral system stipulates that "the counting of votes begins immediately after the close of the poll and continues without interruption until it is completely finished." The counting is conducted publicly and must obligatorily take place at the polling station. Exceptionally, for mobile polling stations, the counting is carried out at the voting center to which they are attached.
According to the law, the vote-counting process is carried out under the supervision of the polling station members, in the presence of representatives of the candidates or candidate lists. When a sufficient number of counters is not available, all members of the polling station may participate in the counting.
The same text also indicates that the provisional results are announced by the President of the Independent National Authority of Elections within 48 hours of the independent authority receiving the tally sheets and the centralization of the results.
It is worth noting that the voter turnout in the legislative elections reached 11.24% at 3:00 PM, after being estimated at 3.05% at 10:00 AM, according to the Acting President of the Independent National Authority of Elections, Karim Khelfane.
Regarding the voting process, Mr. Khelfane reported that the operation took place "calmly," with the exception of a few violations recorded both inside the country and abroad.
The voting process was characterized by strict organization, and citizen turnout at the voting centers witnessed a steady increase during the evening period.
It should be recalled that these elections saw 793 electoral lists competing, comprising 9,854 candidates across the various electoral districts nationwide, in addition to 54 lists comprising 432 candidates for the electoral district abroad, vying for the 407 seats in the National People's Assembly.
Voting operations via mobile polling stations dedicated to remote areas and nomadic populations had kicked off last Monday, while members of the national community residing abroad began fulfilling their electoral duty last Saturday.
A total of 36,385 polling stations were mobilized for this national event, overseen by 424,819 staff members, while the number of voting centers reached 13,664, supervised by 66,265 staff members.
It is worth recalling that following the latest exceptional revision of the electoral rolls, the total electorate stood at 24,727,041 voters, including 23,872,756 nationwide and 854,285 abroad, distributed across eight geographical zones.
