May 7 (Reuters) – Here is a look at Algeria in the last 20 years as the country, under pressure to reform after last year’s “Arab Spring” revolts, holds a parliamentary election on Thursday.
1991 – The Islamist party Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) wins the first round of the country’s first multi-party elections.
1992 – Second round of elections cancelled. Army-backed council takes power and imposes state of emergency. President Mohamed Boudiaf is assassinated after six months. Attacks on security forces mark start of uprising by Islamic Salvation Army (AIS), the armed wing of the FIS.
1995 – Army-backed President Lamine Zeroual wins Algeria’s first multi-candidate presidential poll. Legal Islamist party leader Mahfoud Nahnah comes second with third of the votes.
1996 – Start of a regular series of attacks on villages setting a pattern of violence in which thousands are killed.
1997 – First general election since scrapped 1992 poll takes place. National Democratic Rally party, grouping Zeroual’s supporters, comes first, nine opposition parties and independents win other seats.
April 1999 – Six of seven presidential candidates pull out of presidential election, citing fraud, but the election goes ahead. Street protests break out after former foreign minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika, whose candidacy is backed by the army, is declared the winner. Bouteflika grants amnesty to thousands of Muslim militant prisoners in July.
2000 – Attacks on civilians and security forces continue, and are thought to be the work of small groups still opposed to the amnesties. Violence is estimated to have claimed over 150,000 lives in Algeria since 1992.
April 2004 – Bouteflika is re-elected president though opposition groups cry fraud.
June 2004 – The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), Algeria’s leading Islamic militant group which has ties to al Qaeda, declares war on foreign nationals and companies.
September 2005 – Algerians vote overwhelmingly for peace and for offering partial amnesty to hundreds of Islamic militants.
April 2009 – Bouteflika wins a third term.
February 2011 – Police in riot gear stop government opponents from staging a protest march emulating revolts in Tunisia and Egypt. On Feb. 22, the cabinet adopts an order to lift Algeria’s state of emergency in a concession designed to escape the tide of uprisings sweeping the Arab world. The state of emergency ends two days later, however Bouteflika says a restriction on protest marches in Algiers will remain in force indefinitely.
April 2011 – Bouteflika promises to ensure free elections and amend the constitution “to reinforce representative democracy” in Algeria.
March 2012 – The Front of Socialist Forces (FFS), Algeria’s biggest opposition party, says it will take part in the election, ending a 15-year boycott.
April 2012 – Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) calls on Algerians to revolt against the ruling elite and boycott the parliamentary election, in an Internet audio message.
May 2012 – Parliamentary election. (Reporting by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit; Editing by Alison Williams)
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