Country profile
Algeria
Al Jumhuriyah al Jaza'iriyah ad Dimuqratiyah ash Sha'biyah
Africa · Northern Africa
DZ · DZA
- Capital
- Algiers
- Population
- 47,400,000
- Area
- 2,381,741 km²
- Democracy index
- 38
- Regime type
- Electoral Autocracy
Events
Ballots from Algeria
The latest elections, referendums, and opinion polls from Algeria. Community totals are not official results.
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Classification
Democracy profile
The score and regime label are assigned by Porto Voto using our in-house democracy index and classification framework, not ratings from governments or external agencies.
Democracy index
38/100
Regime type
Electoral Autocracy
The Algerian political landscape remains defined by the dominance of the military backed executive over fragmented civilian institutions. While regular elections are held, the 2024 presidential contest and subsequent legislative sessions have reinforced the power of the incumbent administration through restricted media access and a constrained environment for opposition parties. Civil society continues to face significant pressure under broad anti terrorism and state security laws, which have been used to limit the activities of activists and independent journalists. Although the state maintains basic governance and administrative control, the lack of genuine political competition and the systematic marginalization of the Hirak movement's legacy position the country firmly within the autocracy category. The judicial system frequently mirrors executive priorities, particularly in cases involving high profile dissent or perceived threats to national stability. Economic challenges and a reliance on hydrocarbon revenues further centralize authority, as the government uses distributive policies to manage social discontent while avoiding substantive democratic reforms. Recent legislative updates have done little to dismantle the structural advantages held by established power brokers, ensuring that the political field remains heavily skewed in favor of the status quo.
Last evaluation:
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Country background
A concise introduction to Algeria, together with notes on how power and law are organized, to put local ballots in context.
Algeria has known many empires and dynasties, including the ancient Numidians (3rd century B.C.), Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, over a dozen different Arab and Amazigh dynasties, Spaniards, and Ottoman Turks. Under the Turks, the Barbary pirates operated from North Africa and preyed on shipping, from about 1500 until the French captured Algiers in 1830. The French southward conquest of Algeria proceeded throughout the 19th century and was marked by many atrocities.
A bloody eight-year struggle culminated in Algerian independence in 1962. Algeria's long-dominant political party, the National Liberation Front (FLN), was established in 1954 as part of the struggle for independence and has since played a large role in politics, though it is falling out of favor with the youth and current President Abdelmadjid TEBBOUNE. The Government of Algeria in 1988 instituted a multi-party system in response to public unrest, but the surprising first-round success of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in the 1991 legislative election led the Algerian military to intervene and postpone the second round of elections to prevent what the secular elite feared would be an extremist-led government from assuming power.
An army crackdown on the FIS escalated into an FIS insurgency and intense violence from 1992-98 that resulted in over 100,000 deaths, many of which were attributed to extremist groups massacring villagers. The government gained the upper hand by the late 1990s, and FIS’s armed wing, the Islamic Salvation Army, disbanded in 2000. FIS membership is now illegal.
In 1999, Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA won the presidency with the backing of the military, in an election that was boycotted by several candidates protesting alleged fraud. He won subsequent elections in 2004, 2009, and 2014. Widespread protests against his decision to seek a fifth term broke out in early 2019.
BOUTEFLIKA resigned in April 2019, and in December 2019, Algerians elected former Prime Minister Abdelmadjid TEBBOUNE as the country’s new president. A longtime FLN member, TEBBOUNE ran for president as an independent. In 2020, Algeria held a constitutional referendum on governmental reforms, which TEBBOUNE enacted in 2021.
Subsequent reforms to the national electoral law introduced open-list voting to curb corruption. The new law also eliminated gender quotas in Parliament, and the 2021 legislative elections saw female representation plummet. The referendum, parliamentary elections, and local elections saw record-low voter turnout.