ALGIERS – Candidates hopeful of winning one of the 407 seats in the Algerian parliament kicked off campaigning this week for next month's legislative elections under a new system meant to weed out corruption and open voter rolls — a major step in President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s promise of a “new Algeria.” But a crackdown on the pro-democracy Hirak movement, with hundreds arrested around Algeria during last week's 117th Friday march, casts a pall over presidential efforts to give a new face to a nation whose army plays a backseat role in governance.
There is an unprecedented number of candidates for the June 12 vote — nearly 1,500 lists for the North African nation’s 58 regions, with hundreds of others weeded out by the Independent