Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — The Islamist opposition, despite the deployment of hundreds
of international observers, has asserted that Algerian parliamentary
elections were ridden with fraud.

A three-member Islamic coalition has rejected election results released
from the May 10 elections in Algeria. The so-called Green Alliance, which
came in a distance third, charged that the regime of President Abdul Aziz
Bouteflika engaged in widespread fraud.

“There has been large-scale manipulation of the real results announced in the regions, an irrational exaggeration of these results to favor the administration parties,” Green Alliance said.

Green Alliance said the Interior Ministry election figures, released on
May 11, differed sharply from those by Islamic monitors. Islamists warned of a backlash against the Bouteflika regime, which for years has been battling an Al Qaida insurgency.

“These results will send the Algerian spring backwards,” Abu Jara
Sultani, a senior member of the Green Alliance, said.

The Interior Ministry, which reported a turnout of 42 percent, asserted that the ruling National Liberation Front and its sister party, the National Democratic Rally, captured 288 out of the 462 seats in parliament. Green Alliance was said to have won 48 seats.
“There was no fraud,” Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia told a news
conference. “If anyone has proof, they have 10 days to present it.”

Some 500 international observers were invited to the elections. On May
12, the European Union delegation did not confirm Islamic allegations of
fraud, but urged authorities to release vote counts of polling stations.

“We believe that, by eliminating any illusion of change, the outcome of
this election is set to increase discontent with the ruling elite, which
will continue to pose significant risks to stability in the medium to long
term,” the Eurasia Group said. “The defeat of the Islamist coalition is
likely to exacerbate the already-widespread view that power in Algeria
remains in the hands of a predatory elite detached from the needs of the
vast majority of the population.”

Opposition figures, including former Prime Minister Ahmed Gozali, had
called for a boycott of the elections and reported a turnout of 20 percent.
Gozali said victory by Bouteflika’s party had been a “foregone conclusion.”

The campaign for parliamentary elections was described as lackluster,
with candidates appealing to Algerians to vote. During the campaign,
Bouteflika’s allies dismissed the revolts that swept through North Africa,
including Algeria’s neighbors, Libya and Tunisia.

“Recent Arab revolutions which engulfed our brothers and friendly
countries such as Iraq, Sudan, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt are the work of
Zionism and NATO,” Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, whose National Democratic
Rally won 68 seats, said.

  Abdul Aziz Bouteflika, Ahmed Gozali, Algerian Islamists claim fraud after third place election finish, Daho Ould Kablia, Green Alliance, National Democratic Rally, National Liberation Front