Algerian election authorities gave 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 from the vote.

Parties in the northern province of Bordj Bou Arreridj had been showing hijabs surrounding blank spaces in place of photos of female candidates in their campaign posters.

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

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

He added that at least five parties had not been showing female candidates’ faces on posters.

The blank images have triggered debate in the North African country. “Some Algerian female politicians shown as blank circle in a hijab. Very ‘powerful’,” Twitter user “adlai newson” wrote.

Under a 2012 law, women should account for at least 20 per cent of candidates on a party’s ticket.

Algeria’s parliamentary elections will be held on May 4. A total of 462 members of the People’s National Assembly will be elected from 48 constituencies.

NAN