Algeria: Electronic drivers’ licenses to halt fraud and malpractice.

The Transport Ministry, in conjunction with the Interior Ministry, is now engaged in an operation aimed at easing the renewal of the Algerian driver’s license by turning it from the printed one into the electronic one in the very near future.

This came in the wake of the decision by Transport Minister, Amar Ghoul, to rescind the projected point – based driver’s license and to halt its printing pending an overall review of the future driver’s license by the relevant administrative departments.

Official sources from the Transport Ministry told Echorouk that the projected transformation of the current printed driver’s license into the electronic one came in the framework of the implementation of the cooperation accord with the European Union initialed during the latest 5+5 group bringing together countries from the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean basin.

The same sources added that the next stage of the ongoing operation would be crowned with the issuing of the biometric driver’s license similarly to the delivery of the biometric passport in Algeria.

This future driver’s license, which will be impossible to imitate or to forge, will allow Algerian drivers to use it overseas as this document will be officially recognized at the International level, the same sources explained.

According to official statistics from the Ministry of Transport, road accidents kill 3,000 people per year.

Road accidents claimed 1,277 victims between February and May 2011, according to the transport ministry. Between February 2010 and January 2011, 3,639 deaths and 53,045 injuries were recorded. Accidents were generally due to excess speed and a failure to observe the Highway Code.

Even though more than 13,000 tickets were issued to drivers last year, there is no sign in a let-up in the rising number of accidents. Authorities also impounded 8,273 cars in 2012 and revoked 97,000 licenses in 2013.