As elections approach, many Algerian political parties are finding it increasingly difficult to complete their candidate lists and recruit qualified individuals, often resulting in the selection of candidates who lack the legal and administrative knowledge required for local governance. Legal expert and academic Abdelhafid Milat attributes this crisis to a lack of continuous political training and the decline of parties as incubators for political development, noting that their activity is often restricted to election seasons.
Milat argues that this political "desertification" is the result of years of poor grassroots engagement and a lack of intellectual debate between election cycles. While some major parties have established training schools, their operations remain largely inactive or hidden from the public. To avoid administrative errors and legal breaches by elected officials, Milat calls for parties to turn their headquarters into permanent spaces for public debate and training in municipal management and public finance. He also urges for the early integration of academic elites into technical committees to contribute to reform programs, instead of seeking their support only as a last-resort measure.