Parliament of Algeria
The Parliament of Algeria is the national legislature of Algeria.
People's National Assembly
The lower house of the Parliament is the People's National Assembly.
The 407 seats are apportioned to 59 multi-member constituencies, which correspond to the 58 wilayas (provinces) and an overseas citizens constituency.
Assembly members are elected by proportional representation and party lists within each multi-member constituency. They serve terms of 5 years unless the president dissolved Parliament.
Council of the Nation
The upper house of the Parliament is the Council of the Nation.
Of the total 174 seats, 116 are elected and 58 are appointed by the president.
Each wilaya is represented by 2 elected members. The provincial legislatures elect by majority vote a member every 3 year years, such that the members serve overlapped terms of 6 years.
History
Following independence, the first legislative elections for a People's National Assembly were held in September 1962. This assembly, under the leadership of prime minister Ahmed Ben Bella, then produced a constitution. The assembly seamlessly became the unicameral national legislature. Algeria was a single party state under the FLN.
The Revolutionary Council seized power and dissolved the assembly in 1965, and elections were not held until 1977.
Under Chadli Bendjedid, Algeria liberalized and held competitive elections in 1990. However, the FLN then lost those elections to the FIS. The military seized power and established a High Council of State. The election results were declared invalid. The FIS was banned and most of its leaders were arrested, with a few notables escaping into exile. The FLN also effectively entered the opposition.
New elections were held in 1997, which the new RND won.
Liamine Zéroual pushed major reforms of the legislature. In a "flawed popular referendum", a new constitution was ratified in 1996. This re-centralized power in the presidency and reformed the assembly as the lower house of a new Parliament; the new upper house, the Council of the Nation, is partially appointed by the president.
The FLN returned to political dominance in the 2002 elections, though a presidential coalition with the RND and MSP has been necessary to maintain that dominance since 2005.