Algeria Maintains Ban on Islamist Party

On Tuesday, Algeria’s national assembly voted to continue the ban on the main Islamist party, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). The vote will maintain the two decade old ban, as parliamentarians debated proposals for a new electoral law. The FIS came out on top of the 1991 elections, and was banned in 1992 leading to a bloody civil war. Al-Arabiya notes that “while not singling out the FIS, Tuesday’s vote upheld a ban on any person responsible for the exploitation of religion having led to the national tragedy (civil war) from founding a party or participating in its creation.”

Meanwhile, current President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika was nominated by the the Algerian National Liberation Front (NFL) to run for a fourth term as President. Bouteflika is set to enact reforms to the constitution and grant parliament more power after he “announced a series of political reforms on 15 April in response to a rising political movement in Algeria – part of the ongoing ‘Arab Spring’ – that called for his resignation.”