The longest-serving prime minister was Mohamed Ben Ahmed Abdelghani, who served under President Chadli Bendjedid from 8 March 1979 until 22 January 1984.

The title of the prime minister has evolved as follows since the independence of 1962: The Constituent Assembly of 1962 decided to designate a Head of Government, President of the Council until the adoption of the Constitution.

Starting from the constitutional revision of 1988, the position was simply referred to as Head of Government.

The National People's Assembly must approve the Prime Minister's general policy statement, or they may be dismissed from their position.

However, since 2005, Ahmed Ouyahia holds the record for the longest tenure, serving ten years as prime minister from 1995 to 1998, 2003 to 2006, 2008 to 2012, and from 2017 to 2019.