Algeria ruling coalition wins legislative polls

ALGIERS, May 18 (Reuters) Algeria's governing coalition won an overall majority in parliamentary elections marked by poor turnout, keeping control of a body many in this north African country see as subservient to the powerful executive.

Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni told a news conference today that the National Liberation Front (FLN) won 136 seats, the pro-business Rally for National Democracy (RND) won 61 seats, and the moderate Islamist Movement for Society (MSP) and Peace won 52.

He said turnout in yesterday's poll to elect a new 389-seat lower house of parliament for the next five years was 35 percent, compared with 46 per cent in the last polls in 2002.

Political analysts said that was a record low since the first multi-party elections in 1990.

The presidency is the most powerful office of state in Algeria, a major oil and gas exporter, and Algerians tend to say it is the incumbent, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, rather than parliament who holds the key to a better future.

The FLN, which led the 1954-62 guerrilla war for independence from France and governed during the 1962-1989 period of one-party rule, is lead by Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, a close ally of Bouteflika.

The poll was the third legislative election since an Islamist revolt erupted after the cancellation of a national election in January 1992, which a now-outlawed Muslim fundamentalist party was poised to win.

Up to 200,000 people have been killed in political violence since then.

The bloodshed has diminished sharply in recent years, but lingers on. A triple bombing claimed by al Qaeda killed 33 in Algiers on April 11. One policeman was killed when two small bombs exploded in the eastern city of Constantine on Wednesday.

REUTERS SYU KP1702