At a time when the field preparations for the local elections in Algeria have entered their decisive turn with the study of candidacy files and their adjudication, the party map faces the dilemma of covering all Algerian municipalities.
The most prominent challenge is “filtering” nominations based on the new election law, especially the strict standards related to integrity and combating suspicions of corruption. These restrictions have forced parties to acknowledge the difficulty of competing, as they threaten to exclude hundreds of potential candidates.
The Independent National Elections Authority announced, in a statement issued on Monday, the final outcome of the process of submitting lists of candidates for the election of members of the municipal and state popular councils scheduled to take place on November 28, which showed the submission of 5,631 lists in all of the country’s municipalities, which officially number 1,541 municipalities, of which 5,371 lists were submitted by political parties, and 239 lists entitled “independent candidates.”
According to the same statement, the Election Commission received 21 lists entitled “Alliance of Political Parties.” The total number of candidates for these councils reached 141,388 candidates.
Regarding the state popular councils, the same statement explained that 434 lists had been submitted in all 69 states; Their distribution was as follows: 405 lists sponsored by political parties, 24 lists titled “independent candidates,” and five lists submitted by alliances of political parties.
“Integrity and good reputation”
Before the curtain came down on the process of submitting nomination lists, the parties worked hard to search for candidates who met the conditions imposed by the electoral law, and in particular to avoid names surrounded by suspicion of “corruption,” which caused the exclusion of hundreds of candidates from the parliamentary elections that took place on the second of last July, in which the voting percentage was less than 21 percent.
Several parties sought to attract figures known for their integrity, including veterans, young graduates, notables, and actors in the societal fabric.
This trend reflects a clear paradox, according to observers of the political arena. Political formations, which are supposed to prepare their leaders and hone their competencies, have sometimes found themselves forced to search outside their ranks for figures capable of enhancing their image among voters.
The personal reputation of candidates has become an essential element in winning over voters, which may lead to a decline in the importance of electoral programs, the outcome of previous achievements, and the effectiveness of the projects proposed.
According to press reports, parties must convince voters of the importance of voting and the ability of local councils to respond to the needs of the population. Transparency, accountability of elected officials, and consistency between electoral promises and decisions taken are key factors that can contribute to enhancing this confidence, according to these reports.
It is expected that the election campaign, which will begin on November 7, will provide an initial indication of the level of political mobilization. It will also allow us to determine the extent to which political formations rely on competition between programs, rather than relying solely on the personal fame of the candidates.
A few weeks before the voting date, it appears that the challenge is not limited to presenting the best candidates and ensuring that they meet the legal requirements, but also to convince citizens that local councils possess actual powers and capabilities that enable them to improve the conditions of their daily lives.
“phobia” of exclusion
In a long post on his social media account, the leader of the Islamic opposition Movement for Society for Peace, Abdel Moneim Ben Hamda, returns to the conditions that excluded a large number of nominations, which, according to him, complicated the parties’ task in their effort to search for “honest candidates.”
He said: “These elections seem to be an exception in everything. They are elections taking place in a regional environment characterized by caution and instability, and in light of rising crises, wars, and tensions in the region, in addition to a complex, difficult, and ambiguous internal environment, in which there is everything but the elections.”
He pointed out that these elections “are taking place without candidates; Success in filing the lists has become, in itself, the goal.” He wondered: “Why are the Algerians reluctant to run for office?”
Ben Hamda believes that there are three reasons that explain the aversion to candidacy, the first of which is Articles 184 and 200 of the Election Law, which relate to suspicion of involvement in corruption.
He said that if this text closed the door to the corrupt, it, on the other hand, “killed the ambition of many honest people, because of their fear of running for candidacy and then being excluded under offensive and ill-founded pretexts that may harm their personal reputation and social standing.”
He added: “A potential candidate has begun to wonder before deciding to run in the elections: Am I risking my reputation and my political future just because of the possibility that I will be excluded by an administrative decision or based on suspicions that are not based on final judicial rulings?”
The second reason, from his point of view, is that the upcoming elections “do not tempt activists, as many political party activists have become reluctant to run for office due to a tired and calcified political environment and years of struggle without clear results or prospects.”
The third reason for reluctance, according to Ben Hamda, is “the absence of political prospects in the country.” If the legislative elections do not lead to a change in the government and do not lead to a clear change in public policies, then what is the point of participation for the citizen, the activist, and the candidate?
A delegation of Sudanese anti-war civil forces, headed by former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, began a joint meeting on Monday with the five-member mechanism (the African Union, the United Nations, the European Union, the League of Arab States, and IGAD) at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, to discuss arrangements for a Sudanese-led peace process that begins with a humanitarian truce and leads to a permanent cessation of fighting and a democratic civilian transition.
The meeting comes after the “Sudanese Declaration of Principles Forces” and the “Resilience” coalition boycotted a previous round of consultations with the Quintet, in objection to the way it was managed and the criteria for participation in it, and following a joint meeting between the “Quintette” and the “Quartet” to coordinate humanitarian, security and political tracks.
The delegation includes representatives of the “Forces of the Declaration of Principles,” the “Popular Congress” Party, civil society organizations, and women’s and youth networks, in addition to public figures, united by an anti-war stance that is independent of both sides, according to their statements.
Participating on behalf of the “quintet”, which includes the African Union, the United Nations, the European Union, the League of Arab States and IGAD, are Mohamed Ibn Chambas, Becca Haavisto, Annette Weber, Lawrence Korbandi, and Zaid Al-Sabban, as representatives of the five organizations.
The Sudanese civil forces present a vision for an integrated peace process that begins with an immediate and unconditional humanitarian truce to protect civilians and ensure the arrival of aid, paving the way for a permanent ceasefire and a political path that addresses the roots of the crisis. It demands participation in designing and leading the process, according to fair standards that prevent the dominance of any party, while excluding the National Congress and the Islamic Movement and their facades.
The vision calls for unifying mediations and linking them to coordinated pressures, including expanding the arms embargo to all of Sudan, drying up sources of funding for the war, and holding perpetrators of atrocities and obstructors of peace accountable.
The spokesman for the “Resilient” coalition, Jaafar Hassan, said in statements on the eve of the meeting that the meeting is dedicated to consultation and presenting a vision for preparing for the political process, including agreeing on the participants in the Sudanese dialogue, its place and time.
The “quintet” had previously organized consultations in Addis Ababa at the beginning of last June, but disagreements regarding the participants prevented all parties from being brought together in unified sessions.
Some forces, including “Samoud” and factions from the Democratic Bloc, reached a joint paper on the arrangements for the political process, amid objections to its content and method of preparation.
In late July, the “Forces of the Declaration of Principles” and “Samoud” boycotted a new round, in protest at ignoring their observations and being alone with the arrangements, and bypassing the proposal to form a Sudanese preparatory committee that would determine the parties to the dialogue, its agenda, place and time. Hamdok later confirmed that “Samoud’s” objection is related to the “five-party” approach, and not to the principle of dialogue.
The current participation comes after the first joint meeting between the “Quartet” and the “Quartet”, which includes the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE, in New York on September 23 of last year.
That meeting called for closer coordination between the political and security tracks, linking humanitarian aid and cessation of hostilities to civil dialogue, and preparing mechanisms to monitor any agreement and verify its implementation.
The coordination aims to combine the efforts of the Quartet to stop the fighting and its map presented in September 2025, which proposed a three-month humanitarian truce in preparation for a permanent ceasefire and transition to civilian rule, and the “quintet” consultations regarding the political process.
The “Resilience” coalition had welcomed the rapprochement between the two groups, and stressed the priority of the truce and the integration of international and regional efforts, while the participation of the Sudan founding coalition “Taases”, which is loyal to the “Rapid Support Forces”, remained one of the points of contention in the previous consultations, as leaders in the Democratic Bloc refused to sit with it, and later stipulated that its civilian components be disengaged from the “Rapid Support”, ending parallel entities and condemning violations, while the “Taases” coalition itself boycotted the next round, Objection to the “quintet”’s management of consultations and identification of participants.
In conjunction with the political movement taking place in Addis Ababa, the Sudanese army announced, on Monday, that its air defenses shot down a drone on Sunday evening, which it described as a “hostile strategy,” near the Wad al-Mahi area in Blue Nile State.
The Armed Forces spokesman said, in a press release, that the plane had been spotted since crossing the border “coming from the direction of Ethiopia,” without specifying who launched it or the target it was heading toward. The statement did not include a clear accusation against the Ethiopian authorities of operating or launching the drone.
On Sunday, the Algerian police announced the arrest of 61 Moroccans in the city of Oran, in the northwest of the country, on charges of planning to “commit acts of sabotage,” in a move that raises fears of an exacerbation of the existing tension between the two countries in light of severed diplomatic relations.
A statement by the General Directorate of National Security published by the official media in Algeria on Sunday stated that the police had at the beginning of this October “dismantled a Moroccan international criminal network whose members were active within the national territory, with the arrest of 61 people of Moroccan nationality who were in the process of preparing to commit acts of sabotage that would affect security and public order within the country.”
In Morocco, the Algerian announcement sparked a wave of skepticism in media circles, amid the absence of an official response from Rabat so far.
Criticisms focused on the Algerian account's lack of declared physical evidence to support the accusations, as the security statement did not reveal the nature of the supposed sabotage acts, their goals, or the means that the detainees intended to use. Moroccan media raised questions about considering the seized passports and sums of money as evidence of planning sabotage acts, and linked the timing of the announcement to the ongoing political tension between the two countries since the severing of diplomatic relations in 2021. While some comments questioned the motives of the Algerian announcement, independent verification of the accuracy of the accusations remained impossible in light of the available information.
The official Algerian statement did not clarify the nature of the actions that the detainees were supposedly preparing to carry out, but it stated that among those arrested was a former soldier, and that the group moved from Morocco to Tunisia by air, in the absence of direct flights with Algeria, and then entered the country by land until it reached Oran. Its members were arrested and their passports and sums of money were confiscated.
The statement added that the detainees “infiltrated the national territory, taking advantage of the rugged mountain paths and isolated forest paths in the El-Kala region of El-Tarf Province, adjacent to the Tunisian border.”
This is not the first time that Moroccan citizens have been arrested in Algeria on charges related to drug smuggling, illegal immigration, or even terrorism, according to Agence France-Presse, but without the number reaching 61 people at once.
The French agency indicated that the Algerian army announced last July the arrest of six people in the Tizi Ouzou region in the center of the country, including four of Moroccan nationality who belong to the “Movement for the Self-Determination of the Kabylie Region,” classified as terrorist by the Algerian authorities.
The group was accused of disrupting the legislative elections at the time and inciting “non-participation in them.”
In 2021, Algeria decided to sever its diplomatic relations with Rabat after years of tension due to the Sahara conflict. It is also noteworthy that the land borders between the two countries have been closed since 1994.
