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Algeria elects Boufedeche
Algeria’s parliament elected Khalida Boufedeche as the country’s first woman parliamentary speaker, making her the first woman to lead either chamber of Algeria’s parliament and the fourth-highest-ranking state official.
“Khalida Boufedech became Algeria’s first woman parliament speaker”
Boufedeche, a trained allergist who represents Algiers, won 302 of the 366 votes cast in the election for speaker of the National People’s Assembly late Tuesday, according to Al-Monitor.
She competed against Amine Allouche of the Islamist opposition and Rachid Hassani of the secular opposition, and the vote came after Algerian lawmakers elected her as a lawmaker following Algeria’s July 2 legislative elections.
The election also followed the FLN’s parliamentary showing, with the FLN winning 91 of the parliament’s 407 seats in elections earlier this month, as France 24 reported (with AFP).
Turnout and rivals
The vote was marked by the lowest turnout ever, at 21 percent, and France 24 said Boufedeche assumes the speakership of a body where women hold just 25 seats, or six percent of the total.
In the secret ballot for the Tuesday evening election, SANA said Boufedeche won 302 votes, defeating Amin Allouche of the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), who received 57 votes, and Rachid Hassani of the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), who secured seven votes.
BBC reported that Boufedeche received 302 of 366 votes in a secret ballot held on the evening of Tuesday, July 29, and that the President of Algeria, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, welcomed her after her election.
BBC also quoted Boufedeche’s post-election speech, saying having a woman in the presidency for the first time “represents a watershed moment in the course of our country, and reflects the magnitude of the transformations that Algeria is undergoing.”
Protocol role and women
Boufedeche’s election places her among the highest-ranking officials in Algeria’s state protocol, with Al-Monitor saying she became the country’s fourth-highest-ranking state official and France 24 describing her as the fourth highest-ranking official in the country.
“she became the country’s fourth-highest-ranking state official”
Al-Monitor also said Boufedeche is a member of the National Liberation Front, the largest party in parliament and the largest within the pro-government coalition aligned with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
The BBC profile added that Boufedeche is a physician specializing in allergies and clinical immunology and that she graduated from medical school in 2008 and earned a license to practice her specialty in 2019.
In her inauguration remarks, Boufedeche told the chamber that her election to head the council represents “a national duty and a heavy constitutional responsibility,” as BBC reported.
