Algeria holds local election on 28 November in 1,541 municipalities

Who is running

Lists compete, not single candidates. The electoral authority counted 5,631 lists with 141,388 candidates filed for the municipal assemblies and 434 lists with 21,476 candidates for the provincial assemblies. It is still examining them.

The largest party in parliament is the National Liberation Front (FLN), the historic party of Algeria's independence, which won 91 of 407 seats in the parliamentary election of 2 July. The National Democratic Rally (RND) came second with 74 seats and the Front El-Moustakbal third with 56.

Two Islamist parties followed: the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP) with 43 seats and the El-Bina Movement with 40. The Socialist Forces Front (FFS) and the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) are opposition parties rooted in the Kabylie region.

How the vote works

Voters elect two bodies on the same day: the People's Communal Assembly (APC), the municipal council, and the People's Wilaya Assembly (APW), the council of a province, called a wilaya. Members serve five years.

Seats are shared by proportional representation with open lists. A voter chooses one list and may give a preferential vote to candidates on that list only. A list must have one third women, except in municipalities of up to 20,000 inhabitants.

In the parliamentary election of 2 July polling stations opened at 08:00 and were due to close at 19:00 local time. The head of the electoral authority may postpone the close to 20:00 at the latest, and voting on 2 July was extended by one hour.

How the race got here

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune called the vote by a decree published on 30 August 2026. Voter rolls were revised from 6 to 17 September. The FLN won the previous local elections, held on 27 November 2021, with nearly 6,000 seats.

The Independent National Authority for Elections (ANIE) runs the vote. Saad Arous was named its head on 24 August 2026. The election is held under a new territorial division, which changed the constituencies and the number of seats.

Turnout inside Algeria in the parliamentary election of 2 July was 21.24%. The FFS decided on 7 November 2025 to contest both elections of 2026. The RCD, which did not take part in the 2021 parliamentary election, decided the same on 19 December 2025.

What happens next

1. Aug 30The president's decree calling the vote is published
2. Sep 17The revision of the voter rolls ends
3. today
4. Nov 28Voting day

The electoral authority has 10 days from a filing to reject a list, with reasons. A rejected list has three days to appeal to an administrative court, which rules within four days.

The campaign opens three weeks before voting day and ends three days before it. Counting starts when the polling stations close. In the 2021 local elections the authority announced provisional results three days after the vote, on 30 November 2021.