Armed forces, Bedouins' participation raises opposition's concerns

The upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled on 4 May raised controversy after granting military personnel and Bedouins the right to vote in the elections. The political parties, especially the opposition, expressed their rejection of these procedures. They expressed their concerns over potential influence from the governing authority on armed forces to vote for a particular candidate, which affects the integrity and credibility of the elections.
Algerian Interior Minister Noureddine Badawi, in a press statement, defended the vote of members of the Algerian military, saying that they are Algerian citizens and have the right, like others, to vote. "Members of the Algerian National Assembly are Algerians and have the right to vote, and express their opinion with all transparency and democracy, without any pressure like other categories of the Algerian people. He asserted that the military personnel will cast their ballots outside the security and military headquarters.
In 2003, Algeria's Islamist parties proposed amending the election law to abolish the vote of army, police and security forces to avoid what they call "fraud in elections". Algerian Interior Minister Noureddine Yazdi Zerhouni then expressed rejection to the amendment proposed by the National Reform Movement, the largest Islamist party in parliament, and approved by the parliamentary legal committee.
He called to the abolition of ballots of the army and security personnel, saying they represent "a negative reflection on the electoral process for the abstention of many of them to vote." 
In 2003, Islamist parties in Algeria succeeded in dropping the provision to vote in private offices that were reserved for voting by military, police and paramilitary personnel inside military and security camps and headquarters.
"The military and the police can vote in the agency. We want to establish a democratic system. We seek to remove the military establishment from suspicions so that it cares about its constitutional duties and leaves politics to the politicians," said the deputy chairman of the Popular Council and a senior member of the movement, Lakhdar bin Khallaf.
The Algerian opposition believes that the mobile offices will contribute to forgery and stressed the need to cancel them but their demands were rejected. The authorities accused them of practicing political exclusion because the Bedouins have the right to express their opinions. Bedouins will begin voting before the election process, in mobile polling stations. They have a total of 27,000 voters, usually assigned to 46 electoral offices of the Tindouf, Wamnarast, Wrogla and Illizi states. The voting stations will receive the ballots for about four days.
Algeria is the largest country in Africa in terms of area, with an area of ​​more than 2m square km, most of which are desert areas inhabited by Bedouins.