Political Parties

A plurality of political parties has been authorised in Algeria since the groundbreaking 1989 Constitution. The party system is currently undergoing major changes as a consequence of the 2012 political party reforms allowing the legalisation of a host of new parties (for the first time in nearly a decade) as well as a wave of internal party divisions and leadership challenges that are forcing changes to well-entrenched party structures. 

Whereas a coalition of three parties, the FLN, the RND and an officially-favoured Islamist MSP dominated party politics in the country for more than the first decade of Bouteflika's presidency, this situation changed in 2012 with the departure of the MSP and new minor parties joining the government. Major infighting in the two larger parties is also producing effects which could yet produce changes to the party system as a whole.

The following is a list of the twenty-seven political parties with seats in the 2012-2017 Popular National Assembly as well as two prominent opposition parties outside of parliament. Click on each party for more details: