| | On June 12 Algeria's first free elections since independence in 1962 were held, for the local and regional councils. According to official government figures, the FIS (Islamic Salvation Front) took control of 55 per cent of the 1, 500 local councils, with 54.3 per cent of the vote, and two thirds of the 48 regions (wilayat), with 57.4 per cent of the vote. The FLN (National Liberation Front), which has ruled Algeria as the single recognised political party since independence, retained control of only 32 per cent of the local councils and only 14 wilayat, with 28.1 per cent and 27.5 per cent respectively. In every major city - Algiers, Oran, Constantine - and in many of the others, the FLN was crushed. |
