FRANCE: Algerian citizens in southern France begin casting their ballots for the Algerian parliamentary elections

Record ID: 327780

  • Title: FRANCE: Algerian citizens in southern France begin casting their ballots for the Algerian parliamentary elections
  • Date: 9th May 2012
  • Summary: MARSEILLE, FRANCE (MAY 8, 2012) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF VOTING STATION ALGERIAN FLAG VARIOUS OF PEOPLE QUEUING TO VOTE VARIOUS OF MAN HOLDING HIS ALGERIAN IDENTITY CARD VOTERS HAVING THEIR CARDS CHECKED (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ALGERIAN VOTER, HADJA CHAOUIA, WHO HAS BEEN IN FRANCE FOR NINE YEARS, SAYING: "We are here, we come and we vote because it is a duty. One is obliged to vote, it is a duty. It is an opportunity to show that we are Algerian and that we care for Algeria. We hope for a lot of things, lots of good things for Algeria, prosperity and lots of other things." VOTERS PICKING UP VOTING CARDS VOTING CARDS PEOPLE REGISTERING TO VOTE WOMAN VOTING IN BOOTH MAN ENTERING VOTING BOOTH (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ALGERIAN VOTER, BOUABDALLAH GHILEM, SAYING: "Algeria is a rich country. We would like them (the elected MPs) to think about our children, the youth. They have the means to redistribute the wealth." VARIOUS OF VOTES BEING CAST VOTERS REGISTERING TO VOTE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ALGERIAN VOTER, ZOHRA AISSNAI, WHO HAS BEEN LIVING IN FRANCE FOR 30 YEARS, SAYING: "The young Algerians haven't come and I can see why. They are not encouraged to come, there is no work, the majority are unemployed they don't have any work, those who are in France or in Algeria so they are right not to come. They have lost confidence in their leaders and in the system." VARIOUS OF VOTES BEING CAST
  • Embargoed: 24th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAV21LL86M32VIS6DJIJ642V0D
  • Story Text: Algerians living in southern France began casting their votes for the Algerian parliamentary elections on Tuesday (May 8) ahead of the May 10 vote.
    Some 80 percent of Algerians living abroad are based in France. They are able to cast their votes from 0600GMT on Tuesday until the official day of the election Thursday (May 10).
    Voters could already be seen queuing up to cast their ballot at one election station in the southern city of Marseille.
    "We are here, we come and we vote because it is a duty. One is obliged to vote, it is a duty. It is an opportunity to show that we are Algerian and that we care for Algeria. We hope for a lot of things, lots of good things for Algeria, prosperity and lots of other things," said Hadja Chaouia, who has been living in France for nine years.
    Moderate Islamist parties should emerge the winners of a parliamentary election in Algeria on Thursday but they are unlikely to push for substantial change in a country ruled by the same elite since independence half a century ago.
    Islamists have already won a share of power in other countries in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings and an election victory would be a symbolic shift in Algeria, which has one of the most rigidly secularist elites in the Arab world.
    "Algeria is a rich country. We would like them (the elected MPs) to think about our children, the youth. They have the means to redistribute the wealth," voter, Bouabdallah Ghilem, told Reuters TV.
    In the early 1990s, the military-backed elite overturned an election which Islamists were poised to win and then fought a conflict with them in which about 200,000 people were killed.
    Beyond the symbolism though, change will be limited.
    The Islamists have close ties to the ruling elite, they are moderate, rarely mention religion, and parliament's restricted powers mean they cannot push radical reform even if they want to.
    More hardline Islamists who do seek radical change, and who represent an influential and often volatile part of society, are outside the political process - some out of choice and some because they have been outlawed.
    Algeria has no reliable opinion polls but analysts and diplomats predict the six Islamist parties running in Thursday's election will pick up a bigger share of the vote than the traditionally dominant secularist parties.
    The trend was evident on Saturday in the El-Harcha sports hall in the centre of the capital, Algiers.
    Ahmed Ouyahia, the prime minister and leader of the secularist National Democratic Rally, gathered about 5,000 people for a rally but many seats were empty. A few hours later, the same venue was full for a rally held by the Islamist Front for Change.
    While the Islamists who swept to power after the Arab Spring in Tunisia or Egypt were former dissidents who often spent years in jail for their beliefs, their counterparts in Algeria are more familiar with the inside of government limousines.
    Most forecasts say the Green Alliance, a pact between three Islamist parties, will be the biggest contingent in the new parliament.
    The Movement for Society and Peace (MSP), the biggest party in the alliance, was part of a pro-presidential coalition until last December, when its leader announced he was going into opposition.
    It nevertheless kept several of its ministerial portfolios. One of those who stayed was Amar Ghoul, minister for public works. He heads the alliance's roster of candidates in the capital and is tipped by some as a possible prime minister.
    A similar web of links exists between the ruling establishment and other Islamist parties even though they all say they are in opposition.
    A former leader of El-Islah, another party in the Green Alliance, is now an advisor to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
    At least one ex-senior member of Ennahda, the third alliance partner, has been given an ambassadorship. Abdelmadjid Benasra, head of the Front for Change, served as industry minister during Bouteflika's first term and used to be in the MSP.
    Most of the Islamists in the election are also close to the ruling elite in terms of ideology. Their campaigns focus on bread-and-butter issues and make little mention of the role of Islam in public life.
    But one Algerian voter in France, where the population mostly consists of older people, said it was important for any new government to focus on the youth.
    "The young Algerians haven't come and I can see why. They are not encouraged to come, there is no work, the majority are unemployed they don't have any work, those who are in France or in Algeria so they are right not to come. They have lost confidence in their leaders and in the system," said Zohra Aissnai, who has been in France for 30 years.
    In its speeches and campaign literature, the Green Alliance does not mention the integration of Sharia, or Islamic law, into the justice system. For many people in the Arab world, backing the adoption of Sharia is the test of a true Islamist.
    Al Qaeda's north African wing, whose field commanders are Algerians, last month called on people to boycott the election and revolt against the elite. This group carries little sway in a society which is fed up with violence.
    More influential are former members of the Front for Islamist Salvation, or FIS. This was the movement whose 1991 election win was cancelled by the military-backed government.
    Ex-leaders of the now-banned FIS, from exile, formed a new movement which was lobbying for a peaceful Arab Spring style revolt in Algeria.
    This was curtailed when one of their leaders, a physicist called Mourad Dhina, was arrested in France in January after Algeria requested his extradition.
    The Rachad movement, of which Dhina is a co-founder, said in a statement that he jailed to stop the true opposition to the military from exposing a corrupt electoral process.
    The most powerful group sitting out the election are Algeria's Salafists, followers of an ultra-purist interpretation of Islam. They control hundreds of mosques and have a vast network of charitable associations.
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