Parties told to picture women candidates

ALGIERS: Algerian election authorities have set a 48-hour deadline to political parties, ordering them to show female candidates’ faces on campaign posters, the state news agency reported.

The High Authority for Election Monitoring (HIISE) said that parties should change the failed photos or remove the candidates.

Parties in the northern province of Bordj Bou Arreridj had been showing hijabs surrounding blank spaces in place of photos.

“This kind of encroachment is dangerous. It is not legal and it opposes all laws and traditions,” Hassan Noui, an HIISE official, said.

“It is every citizen’s right to know whom he or she will be voting for.”

Algeria’s parliamentary elections will be held on May 4. – Xinhua