Algeria elects on national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people. People's National Assembly (al-Majlis al-Sha'abi al-Watani/Assemblé Populaire Nationale) has 380 members, elected for a five-year term in multi-seat constituencies by proportional representation. Eight seats in the national assembly are reserved for Algerians abroad. The Council of the Nation (Majlis al-Umma/Conseil de la Nation) has 144 members, 96 members elected by communal councils and 48 members appointed by the president. Algeria has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments. According to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Algerian elections are generally free and fair. According to a US Embassy cable, the 2009 presidential elections were "carefully choreographed and heavily controlled", with the official turnout figure "exaggerated" by at least 45%.
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Until 12 November 2008, presidents were limited to two terms; on this date, amendments to the constitution were passed which removed the term limits but were later reinstalled in 2016 constitution reform by president abdelaziz bouteflika .
The next legislative election is scheduled for 2017.
2012 legislative elections
Template:Algerian legislative election, 2011
2007 legislative elections
These elections were marked by a turnout of 35%, the lowest of any Algerian election to date (). The former ruling party, the National Liberation Front (FLN), obtained the largest number of seats, with 136. It was followed by its two governing partners, the National Rally for Democracy (RND), with 61, and the Islamist Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), with 52 seats. The latter parties gained seats at the expense of the FLN, which lost 38 seats in comparison with its result in 2002.
The radical leftist Workers' Party (PT) led by Louiza Hannoune obtained 26 seats, becoming the largest force in parliament after the governing coalition; the secularist Berber Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) obtained 19 seats, reentering parliament after a boycott in 2002 had left the party without representation there. The other Islamist party, Islah (split, with one wing calling for a boycott of the election), lost heavily, maintaining only 3 seats, versus 43 in the previous parliament. Independents, with 33 seats (3 more than in the previous parliament), and a number of smaller parties shared the rest of the seats.
Several groups, notably the leftist Front of Socialist Forces, leading members of the former Islamic Salvation Front (notably Abbassi Madani and Ali Belhadj), and the newly formed organisation Rachad called on their supporters to boycott these elections. The Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb also issued a video calling participation in the elections "a great sin".