The National Liberation Front (FLN) won the legislative elections of May 17th. The party retained 136 seats in the 389-seat National People’s Assembly, short of the 177 required for a parliamentary majority. Nonetheless, the FLN finished far ahead of the two other parties in the presidential coalition. The National Rally for Democracy (RND) and the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP) took second and third place with 61 and 52 seats, respectively.

Independent lists captured 33 seats, placing them in fourth place. The Workers’ Party (PT) obtained 26 seats, and the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) took 19.

The election was fatal for the El Islah Movement, which took only three seats, a crushing blow after a third-place finish in 2002. The party's poor performance has been attributed to an internal crisis on the eve of the elections which resulted in the departure of party founder Abdallah Djaballah.

The return of the RCD after its boycott of the 2002 elections was significant. But although the party earned 19 seats, it was unable to form a parliamentary bloc, which requires a minimum of 20 seats. A number of other parties earned from one to 13 seats, while two parties participating in the elections received no seats at all.

Only 36.51% of registered voters cast their ballots on Thursday, significantly less than the 46.17% which participated in the 2002 legislative elections. But despite the low turnout, party officials spoke out in support of the election results.

Speaking on behalf of the Workers’ Party, Louisa Hanoune declared the election "a victory for democracy".

MSP president Bougerra Soltani, disagreed, decrying what he called "massive fraud". His party had expected to win 30% of the available seats.

Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni downplayed allegations of irregularities and manipulations, stating they only concerned a small number of stations. He stressed that the government had taken effective measures to ensure transparency, and that any problems had been corrected rapidly.

FLN leader and current Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem stressed that any problems in the voting process were minimal and that they had zero influence on the results of the vote count. Belkhadem then insisted that the Constitutional Council is "the only authority empowered to pass judgement as to whether any irregularities have occurred."

Ahmed Ouyahia, leader of the National Rally for Democracy (RND), announced that his party had observed "anomalies here and there", but would not "read too much into them". The former prime minister added that there is no "deliberate intention on the part of the government to subvert the decision of the public".

Zerhouni announced the official results on Friday (May 18th), saying that the feeble voter participation in the election "reflected the fact that people have come to expect a great deal".