The capital was calm Monday after the military-backed government imposed emergency police powers and said it was banning the popular Muslim fundamentalist party.
Struggling with a mounting challenge from supporters of the Islamic Salvation Front, the ruling council issued the emergency decree Sunday just hours after police raided the party's headquarters."Life has returned to normal," state radio said Monday. Witnesses said security forces had withdrawn from many checkpoints around Algiers.
Schools, businesses and government offices operated normally in the capital, and no unrest was reported elsewhere in the country.
An intensive government crackdown on the Islamic Front began last month when it became clear the party would gain a parliamentary majority in the country's first free national elections.
The scheduled second round of voting was canceled and dozens of Islamic Front activists were arrested.
In the past week, about 40 people have been killed and hundreds injured in clashes between fundamentalists and security forces.
The emergency decree empowers police and military officials to set up special detention centers, to carry out extralegal arrests and searches and to try detainees before military tribunals.
All demonstrations "likely to disturb public order" are banned. Authorities have the power to dissolve municipal councils.
Most of the councils have been controlled by fundamentalists since local elections in 1990, a year after the Islamic Front and other opposition parties were legalized.
The emergency decree, issued by the five-member High State Committee and effective for up to 12 months, was announced on national television Sunday evening.