“Election Authority” sets up its provincial apparatus and pinpoints candidacy requirements for upcoming local elections
The National Independent Authority for Elections has completed its field deployment across various provinces of the nation, by installing the last batch of provincial coordinators, thereby raising the number of installed coordinators to 69 coordinators, as the preparation process for the elections of Municipal and Provincial People’s Assemblies scheduled for next November 28th 2026 enters a new phase, especially with political parties starting to prepare their primary lists concerned with this entitlement.
The completion of the installation of the authority’s provincial apparatus comes at a time when practical steps related to the local entitlement are accelerating, making the new coordinators face their first field test, especially as the process moves from the organizational preparation stage to the stage of readiness to receive candidacies, particularly with the date for convening the electoral body set for November 28 next.
According to a statement issued by the “Independent Authority”, its new head, Mr. Saad Arrous Ashraf, supervised, Tuesday, via remote videoconferencing technology, the installation ceremonies of 40 provincial coordinators, as a completion of the process of installing 29 coordinators that took place Monday, thus completing the process of installing coordinators across the 69 provinces, noting that the completion of the installation process comes within the framework of the authority’s endeavor to set organizational arrangements and enhance its field readiness, to ensure the proper performance of the tasks entrusted to it across various provinces of the nation.
These changes in the composition of the Independent Authority come with the acceleration of preparations for local elections, the features of which have begun to take shape with the setting of procedures for candidacy and the completion of the installation of the provincial apparatus across all provinces, at a time when political parties are preparing to enter the stage of preparing lists and setting their candidates in anticipation of the entitlement scheduled for November 28 next.
In a context related to preparations, the Independent Authority provided, in a statement on Tuesday, clarifications regarding the procedures followed to withdraw the collective candidacy declaration file and individual signature subscription forms for those wishing to run for local elections.
The statement said that “following the issuance of Presidential Decree No. 26-284, involving the convening of the electoral body to elect members of the Municipal and Provincial People’s Assemblies, and in accordance with the provisions of Order No. 21-01 containing the Organic Law relating to the election system, amended and supplemented, the National Independent Authority for Elections informs all those wishing to run for the election of members of the Municipal and Provincial People’s Assemblies for Saturday, November 28, 2026, that the process of withdrawing the collective candidacy declaration file and individual signature subscription forms for the benefit of the list of candidates, shall be from the headquarters of the provincial coordinator of the Independent Authority for the electoral district subject of the candidacy.”
The Independent Authority also informs that “those wishing to run must submit a declaration of depositing the list that meets the legally required conditions at the level of the headquarters of the provincial coordinator of the Independent Authority after expressing an intention to form this list by a candidate authorized by a party or several parties or by candidates of an independent list after submitting a letter in the form of a template provided by the provincial coordinator of the Independent Authority, starting from Monday, August 31, 2026, from 08:00 AM until 16:30 PM.”
It pointed out, in this regard, that those wishing to run can raise their concerns and questions about the progress of the process via email [email protected], and they can also view more information through the official website of the National Independent Authority for Elections https://ina-elections.dz/.
To note, the upcoming local elections come under new provisions approved by the amendment of the election law, especially regarding the setting of electoral lists, as Organic Law No. 26-05 dated April 4, 2026, amending and supplementing Order 21-01 relating to the election system, requires, regarding candidacy lists for Municipal and Provincial People’s Assemblies, that they include a number of candidates exceeding the number of seats required to be filled by seven candidates in electoral districts where the number of seats is odd, and by six candidates in districts where the number of seats is even.
The lists must also, under penalty of rejection, include one-third of the candidates from women, and allocate at least half of the nominations to persons whose age does not exceed 40 full years on election day, and that at least one-third of the list’s candidates have a university educational level, with the women’s representation condition not applied in municipalities whose population does not exceed 20,000 people.
