Algeria’s Opposition Parties Reject Holding Early Legislative Elections

Algerian security services again accused of torturing a movement activist (AFP)
Algerian security services again accused of torturing a movement activist (AFP)
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Algeria’s Opposition Parties Reject Holding Early Legislative Elections

Algerian security services again accused of torturing a movement activist (AFP)
Algerian security services again accused of torturing a movement activist (AFP)

Algerian opposition parties have rejected President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s decision to simultaneously hold parliamentary and municipal elections, planned for June.

According to observers, Tebboune’s decision to dissolve the parliament and municipal councils to hold early elections is neither stipulated by the constitution nor the electoral law.

Earlier, the President announced his plan to dissolve the National Popular Assembly and call for elections in late February.

In an interview with two newspapers broadcast on public television, Tebboune affirmed that upon the request of several parties, the legislative and local elections will take place on the same day.

He also urged opposition parties to take part in the elections and oversee the expected electoral process.

The upcoming elections have nothing to do with the past, he affirmed, noting that the electoral law encourages qualified figures and elites to run and be part of the decision-making bodies.

“The next parliament may include a majority of the opposition,” he told the newspapers.

Six parties have already announced their participation in the expected early parliamentary elections. Namely, the Movement for the Society of Peace, the Islamic National Building Movement (Harakat al-Bina al-Watani), the liberal New Generation(Jil Jadid) party, the national Future Front (Jabhat El Moustakbel), the National Liberation Front and the Democratic National Rally party (RND).

Other parties, however, most notably the Labor Party and the Rally for Culture and Democracy, have expressed reservations about this step.

Meanwhile, an Algerian activist, who is the second this month, claimed that he was tortured during his detention at the Internal Security headquarters.

Lawyer Abdullah Haboul, who heads the advocate team of activist Sami Dernouni, said on Tuesday that his client was ill treated during investigation.

Lawyer Ali Farah, for his part, who is a member of Dernouni’s advocate team, said the activist told the judge that he was electrically shocked and undressed by the security forces.

He affirmed that he was beaten and deprived of his right to request medical examination during his jail time, contrary to what is stipulated in the Criminal Procedures Law.

No comments were made by the Defense Ministry, to which the Internal Security Agency is affiliated, nor the Justice Ministry, which has the right to monitor the general situation in civilian and military prisons.



Israeli Airstrikes Kill at Least 30 Palestinians in Gaza, Medics Say

A body arrives at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah town, central Gaza Strip, 31 October 2024. (EPA)
A body arrives at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah town, central Gaza Strip, 31 October 2024. (EPA)
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Israeli Airstrikes Kill at Least 30 Palestinians in Gaza, Medics Say

A body arrives at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah town, central Gaza Strip, 31 October 2024. (EPA)
A body arrives at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah town, central Gaza Strip, 31 October 2024. (EPA)

Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 30 Palestinians since Monday night, Palestinian media and medics said on Tuesday, as the Israeli army tightened its siege on northern areas of the enclave.

An airstrike damaged two houses in the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, where the army has carried out new operations since Oct. 5, and killed at least 20 people late on Monday, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA and Hamas media said.

The Gaza health ministry did not immediately confirm the toll. Four other people were killed in the central Gazan town of Al-Zawayda around midnight on Monday, medics said.

Palestinian health officials said six people had also been killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City and Deir Al-Balah in the central area of the narrow enclave.

The Israeli military said, without giving details, that its forces had "eliminated terrorists" in the central Gaza Strip and Jabalia area. Israeli troops had also located weapons and explosives over the past day in the southern Rafah area, where "terrorist infrastructure sites" had been eliminated, it said.

Palestinians said the new attacks and Israeli orders for people to evacuate were aimed at emptying two northern Gaza towns and a refugee camp to create buffer zones.

Israel says its forces have killed hundreds of Palestinian gunmen and dismantled military infrastructure in Jabalia in the past month.

More than 43,300 Palestinians have been killed in more than a year of war in Gaza, the authorities in Gaza say, and much of the territory has been reduced to ruins.

The war began after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.