Algeria Islamists allege fraud in polls

ALGIERS — Algeria's main Islamist coalition, which came third in this week's legislative elections, on Saturday accused the ruling coalition of ballot box stuffing, threatening and committing violence against its supporters.

Abderrazak Makri, who heads the Movement for the Society of Peace (MSP), said his party and its ally the Front for Change would have won if there had not been any fraud.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's National Liberation Front (FLN) and its ally the Rally for National Democracy (RND) won a clear majority in Thursday's elections.

"The administration allowed the thugs of the FLN and the RND to stuff ballot boxes and commit violence without it intervening," said Makri, whose party has links to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Islamist leader, whose coalition won 33 of the national assembly's 462 seats, said official complaints would be filed with the country's constitutional council.

Islamist parties won 67 seats in the polls, up from a total of 60 in the 2012 elections.

Makri said 70 per cent of polling stations did not have any observers due to a misinterpretation of the electoral law.

According to the Islamist leader, in several areas, the vote count of which the MSP obtained a copy does not coincide with the final vote count that was announced.

Makri said abstention in the country would diminish considerably when elections become clean, after a turnout of 37 per cent in Thursday's vote.

He said there were "more than two million blank ballot papers" out of eight million who cast their vote.

But Makri said he would not encourage Islamist lawmakers to resign from parliament, and instead press for change within public institutions.

Thursday's vote was marred by voter disillusionment over what many see as broken government promises and a political system tainted by corruption.