According to the Constitutional Council, 165 appeals regarding
the 10 May legislative elections were submitted to the Council prior to the
closing date for appeals on Thursday 17 May. Appeals can be lodged by political
parties and candidates. Most of the political parties told the media that they
had submitted appeals.
The appeal process lacks transparency and is not thought likely
to consider seriously any appeal relating to such serious matters as vote
rigging. We would even be surprised if the Council had accepted appeals relating
to the fact that the voter's role, strongly believed to have been 'out of
order', was not made available to the political parties.
According to the Council, it has accepted 13 of these appeals
as being founded, while saying that it had rejected 107 as being unfounded. What
has happened to the balance of 45 has not been made clear. We can also only
assume that these have also been rejected. As some of the 13 accepted appeals
have come from the government's own two parties (FLN and RND), it is doubted
whether they will be casting any serious dispersions on the election.
According to the Council, the appeals that it has taken into
account came from 12 constituencies, namely Chlef, Blida, Bouira, Tebessa,
Djelfa, Annaba, Guelma, Constantine, Mostaganem, Bordj Bou Arreridj, Boumerdes
and Mila.
The Council will issue written replies in due course.
© 2012 Menas Associates
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