Leader of Algeria’s Islamist party (MSP), Abderrazak Mokri
ALGIERS, June 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Leader of Algeria’s Islamist party, known as the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP) has said his party is ‘’very satisfied’’ with results of the elections.
Abderrazak Mokri was speaking at a press conference at his party’s headquarters in the capital Algiers.
Over the weekend, the country’s long-dominant National Liberation Front party won the legislative polls, but with a significantly reduced number of seats.
The electoral board said Tuesday, June 15 the civic exercise was the country’s lowest ever turnout at 23.03%.
But Mokri said the results puts the party ‘’in a good position’’.
“We are very satisfied, as we are in a position that allows us to perform a lot of movements and to work in a lot of different directions. God, the Algerian people and the voters have put us in an extremely comfortable position, which allows us to be of service to the country and to develop and expand our movement without any problem”, he said.
“We need a strategic dialogue to build the country, and we will study this proposal and assess its seriousness and realism, and submit it to the constitutive council, which will take the decision”, Mokri said.
The vote was shunned by the long-running Hirak protest movement, and followed a string of arrests of opposition figures in the north African nation. Police heavily deployed in Algiers to pre-empt any attempt to hold rallies.
The FLN won 105 of the 407 seats, followed by independent candidates with 78 seats. The country’s main Islamist party, the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP) came third with 64 seats, elections commission president Mohamed Chorfi told reporters.
The Rassemblement national démocratique (RND), with which the FLN has traditionally allied itself, won 57 seats (14%).
Only 5.6 million of more than 24 million eligible voters lodged a ballot at Saturday’s polls. — NNN-AGENCIES
