We study the exact convergence rate of the alternating projection method for the nontransversal intersection of a semialgebraic set and a linear subspace. If the linear subspace is a line, the exact rates are expressed by multiplicities of the defining polynomials of the semialgebraic set, or related power series. Our methods are also applied to give upper bounds for the case that the linear subspace has the dimension more than one. The upper bounds are shown to be tight by obtaining exact convergence rates for a specific semialgebraic set, which depend on the initial points.