Reuters

ALGIERS: Fifteen Algerian parties that claim they were robbed by the regime in May 10 legislative polls announced Monday they would boycott the new national assembly.
 
The 15 parties, which account only for a combined 29 seats out of parliament’s 462, said they would set up a parallel “constituent assembly” Saturday when the new assembly is inaugurated.
 
The National Liberation Party, which has ruled Algeria since independence, strengthened its presence in parliament by taking 221 seats while the party loyal to the regime took 70.
 
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika had responded to Arab Spring protests in neighboring countries last year by launching a reform package and allowing new parties to contest the polls, but none was able to make an impact.
 
The parties “reject the results of the rigged May election as well as the government it will yield,” a joint statement said.
 
Among those parties are the Justice and Development Front of Islamist leader Abdallah Djaballah, who had boasted wide support during the campaign but could muster only seven seats.
 
Many Algerians, opposition parties and analysts argue that the results announced by the Interior Ministry and confirmed by the constitutional council have little correlation with reality.
 
Bouteflika had invited 500 foreign observers for the election, including 150 from the EU, who gave a qualified endorsement of the official results.
 
Djaballah Monday accused the observers of condoning state-sponsored fraud by delivering broad assessments on the polling process despite being granted limited access.
 
“The testimony of the foreign observers is perjury because it was simply impossible for them to monitor the vote in all polling stations,” he said.
 
The observers monitored only a few of the more than 40,000 polling stations set up for the vote.
 
Djaballah also suggested EU observers were under pressure not to compromise relations with Algeria, which provides a fifth of the bloc’s gas.