ALGIERS (AFP)
Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Thursday set a May 10 date for parliamentary elections and urged young people to turn up in masses to vote.
“We will begin the new step of political reforms by holding parliamentary elections on May 10, 2012, in conformity with the new electoral code that has entered into force,” he said in a speech on national TV and radio.
The election will be the fourth multiparty parliamentary vote in Algeria, which last went to the polls in 2007.
It will also be the first since the Arab Spring began last year with a popular revolt in neighbouring Tunisia, which triggered unrest in Algeria and led Bouteflika to pledge a raft of reforms last April.
The government announced Tuesday that the number of parliamentary seats would be raised from 389 to 462.
In his speech lasting under 10 minutes, the president called for “massive participation” of young people in the elections, saying that it was necessary for the new parliament to be credible.
“I am expecting political parties, unions and civil society organisations to stand together to mobilise voters, the young in particular,” he said.
The president said he had “prohibited all… members of the government from using state resources or to hold official visits” for electoral purposes, and that the administration has “the responsibility to ensure the neutrality of their agents.”
He added that other reforms will be put in place after the elections, without giving further details.
Bouteflika announced last year that the new parliament will be charged with amending the constitution.
The current parliament is dominated by the National Liberation Front, which has played a key role in Algerian politics since it led the way to independence from France in 1962, and the National Democratic Rally.
Seventeen new parties have been authorised to hold their first congresses under a new law passed last month following the reforms announced by Bouteflika.
Algeria is a major oil and gas producer, a sector that accounts for almost all of its foreign earnings.
But other sectors of the economy are underdeveloped and youth unemployment was running at 21 percent last year, according to the World Bank.
