Claimed ‘cursed’ Parliamentary seat in Algerian elections kills two women winners
By Iqbal Tamimi
The fact that the majority of the
new parliamentary seats in Algeria have been won by the ruling party has raised
suspicions by the opposition. But this seems not to be the only problem the party is
facing.
It has been claimed that the women’s seat is ‘cursed’, following the death of the two women who won the elections
of the state of Djelfa. The interesting thing is both victims are members of
the ruling party, the National Liberation Front.
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Lawyer, Ilham Bin Saed, member of
the National Liberation Front has died as a result of a traffic accident that
occurred on the last day of the elections campaign, during the National
Liberation Front Party candidates’ procession while heading for the
“Sharef” municipality at state of Djelfa.
‘Bin Saeed’ died at hospital
while she was receiving treatment, before enjoying her Parliamentary seat. The
nation had another shock following news about the death of another woman
candidate of the ruling party. ‘Mariam Bohnafah Mahfoudhi’, that died before announcing
her winning of the second seat.
The sudden death of the two
women, winning members of the ruling party, caused deep worries about the third
woman winner of the parliamentary seat, Fatima Zahra Ben Hado.
According to the laws in force,
the vacant positions of the two women who passed away must be filled by another
two candidates from the list of candidate of the ruling party at Djelfa state.
Apart from the fraud charges the
Parliament accused of, since the announcement of the results on the 11 th of
May. The most important feature of the new legislative body is the fact that
women have harvested one third of parliamentary seats, 148 seats out of a total
of 462 seats. This occurs for the first time in the history of the country.
Thanks to the amendments to the electoral law which imposes on the parties to
include women by 30% in their electoral lists.
The number of women MPs at the
Liberation Front is 68, followed by 23 at the National Democratic Assembly,
then 17 from the Islamists’ parties, and the rest are of different other
parties.
Among the most prominent women
winners of the membership of the Algerian Parliament, is Secretary General of
the Algerian Workers’ Party, the leftist Mrs. Louisa Hanoune, The Workers’
Party is a Trotskyist political party , closely linked with the Workers’ Party
of France. Another prominent winner is Sheikh al-Qaradawi’s ex-wife, Asma’a bin
Qadah, nominated by the ruling party.
