Algeria kicks off campaign for parliamentary elections

The campaign for the Parliamentary elections of May 4 has officially started on Sunday throughout Algeria.

As many as 12,591 candidates are due to contest for a place at the 462-seat lower house of parliament, as they are intended to outline their programs in public spaces and media channels and outlets, and ultimately attract as many voters as possible.

The candidates are spread in a total of 1,088 electoral lists, of which 797 represent 63 political parties, 128 alliances, and 163 others are representing independent candidates.

Candidate's portraits are either plastered on ready-made billboards placed on pavements, or hung on walls and trees, Xinhua reporter noticed.

Authorities have prepared 4,734 public spaces, which the candidates can use to conduct public meetings. In addition, the authorities have also set an unbiased distribution of media time passage between all candidates.

Logistically, 500,000 supervisors are mobilized to monitor the elections, as well as 53,000 polling stations, including 390 for the Diaspora community abroad, in addition to 166 mobile polling stations to help population living in remote desert areas to accomplish their voting right.

A total of 23,251,503 voters, 45.85 percent of which are women, are eligible to participate in the poll.

The lower house of parliament is composed of 462 members elected by universal suffrage for a term of five years.

The two ruling parties of the National Liberation Front and National Democratic Rally grabbed together a majority of 291 seats in the elections of May 10, 2012. Endit