Algeria

At the start of the 21st century, human rights and democracy had not made substantial progress in Algeria. However, Bouteflika attempted to polish Algeria’s tarnished international image and strengthen Algeria’s relationship with the United States and the European Union (EU). Reelected in 2004, Bouteflika brought relative stability to Algeria by releasing imprisoned opposition leaders and granting amnesty to Islamist rebels. In 2005 Algerians voted their approval of the president’s Charter on Peace and National Reconciliation, which was meant to close the chapter on a decade of violence. It pardoned Islamist militants so long as they renounced violence, but it also protected the army and security forces from bearing responsibility for the thousands of Algerians who “disappeared” after arrest.

Although most political observers believed that real power in Algeria belonged to the president, the army, and the security services, Algeria conducted its third multiparty parliamentary elections in 2007. The parliamentary coalition loyal to Bouteflika, consisting of the FLN, the pro-business National Democratic Rally, and the moderate Islamist Movement for a Peaceful Society, won the largest bloc of seats, 249, in the 389-member National People’s Assembly. The Islamic Salvation Front remained a banned party. Political observers were struck by the relative lack of violence leading up to and during the elections.