Thursday, May 10, 2012

Algeria and Algerian News

Country Profile
Algeria officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria is a country in Northwest Africa.

Algeria is the largest country in Africa(followed by Democratic Republic of Congo),Maghreb(The Maghreb is much or most of the Region of Northwest Africa, West of Egypt)and the Arab World(Arabic Speaking States, Territories and Populations in North Africa,Western Asia and elsewhere)

Algeria is also the largest of the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea

Algeria is also the 10th-largest country in the world

More than 90% of Algeria's surface is covered by the Sahara Desert.
Islam is the predominant religion with 99% of the population
Women make up 70% of the country's lawyers and 60% of its judges, and also dominate the field of medicine. Increasingly, women are contributing more to household income than men. 60%of university students are women

Algeria is divided into 48 Provinces,553 Districts and 1541 Municipalities.ThePeople's Provincial Assembly is the political entity governing a province, which has a "president", who is elected by the members of the assembly. They are in turn elected on universal suffrage every five years.
Algeria got independence from France on July 5,1962 following the March 1962 Evian Agreements and the July 1962 Self-determination Referendum.

Capital                                   Algiers
Currency                                Algerian Dinar
Official Language                   Arabic
Population                             37 Million(2011 Estimate)

Politics and Government
Algeria is a Presidential Republic where the President is Head of State while the Prime Minister is Head of Govt and of a Multi Party System.

President of Algeria
The President of Algeria is elected for a 5 year term.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika is the Current and 5th President of Algeria in office from April 27,1999(serving the 3rd term as President)
AbdelazizBouteflika ran for President as an independent candidate in the 1999 Presidential Elections, supported by the military. He was elected with 74% of the votes.
In the 2004 Presidential Election,he was re-elected for a 2nd term by 85% of the votes.
Following the Constitutional Amendment allowing him to run for a third term in the 2009 Presidential Election, Abdelaziz Bouteflika contested as an Independent Candidate and won with 90.24% votes.

Prime Minister of Algeria
The Prime Minister is appointed by the President of Algeria along with other ministers and members of the government that the new Prime Minister recommends which the People's National Assembly must approve.

Abdelmalek Sellal is the Current Prime Minister of Algeria in office from Sep 3,2012.Prior to this,he was Minister of the Interior from 1998 to 1999, Minister of Youth and Sports from 1999 to 2001, Minister of Public Works from 2001 to 2002, Minister of Transport from 2002 to 2004, and Minister of Water Resources from 2004 to 2012.

Parliament of Algeria

The Parliament is Bicameral -
People's National Assembly(Lower House)consists of 380 members directly elected by the population.
Council of the Nation(Upper House)is consists of 144 members, 2/3 of which are elected indirectly and 1/3 of which are appointed by the President.

2012 Algerian Legislative Election - Thursday May 10,2012
Algeria's Parliamentary Elections on Thursday are being billed as the fairest in 20 years, but Algerians appeared to be showing little interest and even outright scorn for the vote.About 22 million are eligible to vote for 44 parties following legalisation of most parties this year. Voter turnour is expected to be low, possibly less than 35% from the last election.
The last truly fair elections in 1991 were dominated by a populist Islamist party known as the Islamic Salvation Front, but the military stepped in, cancelled the voting and banned the party, prompting more than a decade of civil war that killed an estimated 200,000.
The two parties in the ruling coalition - the National Liberation Front (FLN) and the National Democratic Rally (RND) - and a new coalition of three Islamist parties- The Islamist grouping, the new Green Algeria Coalition consisting of-
Movement of Society for Peace (MSP)
Islamic Renaissance Movement (Ennahda) and
National Reform Movement
are expected to take the lion's share of the vote.