With almost everyone having doubts over the transparency of the 4 May elections, the Minister of the Interior and Local Government, Noureddine Bedoui, tried to dispel doubts about the risks of fraud. With the opposition even questioning the ability of the High Election Supervisory Authority (HIISE) to control the operation, Bedoui tried to provide reassurance, by saying that ‘all the decrees and relevant texts are ready and in order for the holding of the election in accordance with the electoral laws.’

That may be true, but it ignores the fact that the elections will undoubtedly be fraudulent because of the electoral roll. This is the government’s ‘secret’ crown jewel. It contains millions of fictitious voters and cannot be accessed or  checked by the opposition or public. The former claims that the electoral role is an ‘inexhaustible reservoir of fraud’. According to opposition leaders, the sheer size of the roll, listing 23 million voters, means that it must contain millions of fictitious voters, which the government uses to manipulate the results of the elections. According to Parti des Travailleurs (PT) leader, Louisa Hanoune, some names appear as many as seven times.

The electoral roll is at the centre of the controversy that surrounds every election. During the 2012 elections even the EU — which undertook a totally inadequate and pathetically obsequious monitoring of the election — said that the roll should be opened up for pubic examination. But, that still has not happened, and it is unlikely that it ever will be, even thoug — thanks to the digitalisation of civil status records — it is now easy to clean up the roll.

The matter is made worse by the fact that all the relevant ministries are controlled by FLN or RND ministers who use their portfolio to influence the administration of the election and then to distort its results.