The partial elections for members of the National Assembly began on Saturday, at the level of the Province People’s Councils across the country, as part of the path of completing the democratic construction of state institutions.
Four hundred seventy-five (475) candidates representing run in the election for the partial renewal of the Council of the Nation (Upper House) to elect 68 new members as part of the the path of completing the democratic construction of state institutions established by the president of the Republic, Mr. Abdelmajid Tebboune.
The candidates, who will be chosen by an electoral college amounting to 27,151 voters, are members of the People’s Communal and Provincial Assemblies elected last November 27. 475 would run in the elections for the partial renewal of the Upper House of Parliament, said Wednesday the Chairman of the National Independent Authority for Elections (ANIE), Mohamed Charfi.
It provides that “any member of a People’s Communal of Provincial Assembly, meeting the legal requirements, may stand for election to the Council of the Nation” and that “the candidate to the Council of the Nation membership must be aged over thirty-five (35) years old on the day of the election and have completed a full term as an elected official in a People’s Communal or Provincial Assembly. Prove his status “towards the tax administration and not be definitively sentenced to a penalty of deprivation of liberty for committing a felony or misdemeanor and not considered, except for unintentional misdemeanors”.
Candidate is requires to ”not to be known to the public about his connection with the financial and suspicious business circles and its influence, directly or indirectly, on the free choice of voters and the proper conduct of the electoral process”.
The ANIE provincial delegation decides on the validity of the candidacies and “may reject, by reasoned decision, any candidacy that does not meet the conditions provided for by this organic law.”
The elections for the renewal of half of the senators of the Council of Nation (Upper House) will be held on Saturday, under the provisions of the Constitution and the presidential decree convening the electoral college signed last December 22 by the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, The organic law on the election system stipulates that the electoral college is convened by a presidential decree forty-five (45) days before the date of the election.
The largest number of candidates was registered in the new provinces within the new regional division, except for the province of Boumerdes (20 candidates) and Tindouf ( 19 candidates), which reflects “electoral mobility in these new provinces and the need of its residents to political representation,” according to the statement of the president of the Authority Mohammed Sharfi.
The Constitutional Court reminded last Thursday on the conditions and modalities for filing appeals on these elections.
