Algeria’s first woman speaker has been sworn into one of the most powerful offices in the country, after MPs in Algiers backed veteran FLN lawmaker Khalida Boufedeche to lead the lower house of parliament.
Boufedeche won the vote late on Tuesday evening, taking 302 of the ballots cast in the People’s National Assembly. Her nearest challenger, Amine Allouche of the Movement of Society for Peace, secured 57 votes, while Rachid Hassani of the Rally for Culture and Democracy trailed with seven, according to figures published by the Algerian Press Service.
The result makes her Algeria’s first woman speaker since the assembly was established, and places her fourth in the country’s formal state hierarchy, behind only the president, the prime minister and the head of the upper house.
Before this week, no woman had ever held the post, which makes Algeria’s first woman speaker moment all the more notable in a legislature long dominated by men.
Boufedeche is a trained allergist who represents Algiers, the capital. She sits on the central committee of the National Liberation Front, the party that led Algeria’s independence struggle and remains closely aligned with the government of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, as reported by France 24.
Her political career began at municipal level. She served on the Bordj El Bahri Municipal People’s Assembly between 2012 and 2017, before winning a national seat in 2021, according to SANA.
The FLN entered this month’s legislative vote as the dominant force, and it emerged with 91 of the assembly’s 407 seats, more than any rival party, Africanews reported. That strength in numbers gave the party’s bloc the leverage to push Boufedeche’s candidacy through, after other contenders were reportedly dropped in favour of a single nominee.
Announcing her nomination, the FLN’s parliamentary bloc pointed to her competence and leadership experience, according to Asharq Al-Awsat, and said her leadership would strengthen the chamber’s oversight and diplomatic functions while keeping lawmakers united across party lines.
Her ascent to Algeria’s first woman speaker role comes despite a legislative election overshadowed by record voter apathy. Turnout in the July poll fell to 21.24 percent, the lowest ever recorded for a parliamentary vote in Algeria, a figure confirmed by both APS and Asharq Al-Awsat.
President Tebboune played down concerns over the low turnout, insisting that participation levels do not undermine the legitimacy of the new parliament, Asharq Al-Awsat reported.
Women remain a small minority inside the chamber Boufedeche now leads. Just 25 of the 407 seats, or six percent, are held by women in the new assembly, a sharp fall from the 38 women elected to the previous parliament, and far below the 118 who sat under the quota system introduced after the 2017 elections, Africanews figures show.
Against that backdrop, her election carries weight well beyond Algiers. Algeria’s first woman speaker now sits among a small group of women who have broken into the top ranks of legislative leadership across the continent, at a moment when female representation in many African parliaments is under strain rather than expanding.
As Algeria’s first woman speaker, Boufedeche will now oversee the assembly’s legislative agenda for a five-year term, alongside newly elected lawmakers who took their seats after the July vote. How she balances that mandate, in a chamber where women remain heavily outnumbered, is likely to shape how her tenure is judged in the years ahead.
