The question we intend to address in this paper is whether the Iranian and Algerian electoral systems are really ingrained into their respective political systems and therefore may translate struggles and aspirations for change existing in society or on the contrary they are mere superstructures, that is, non-essential ad-hoc mechanisms aimed at casting legitimacy for the system and preventing any power transfer. Secondarily we look for similarities and differences in both countries electoral institutions and functions. In order to assess the role of the elections in both political systems, we first analyse the interplay between the electoral rules on one side, the state institutions and the abnormal forms of political parties on the other. Due to the defective nature political parties assume in both countries (identity parties in Algeria; factions and fronts in Iran), the question of who and how performs the functions conventionally assigned to political parties becomes all the more important and modifies the salience of electoral processes. We conclude with some unexpected findings on similarities about personal filters and routinization of charisma. We also infer that electoral systems in these countries are important to sustain regime structures but of little relevance to produce regime change.