ALGERIA: Political parties hold rallies on last day of campaigning for parliamentary elections amidst widespread public apathy and fears of resurgent political violence

Record ID: 345414

  • Title: ALGERIA: Political parties hold rallies on last day of campaigning for parliamentary elections amidst widespread public apathy and fears of resurgent political violence
  • Date: 16th May 2007
  • Summary: (MER2) ALGIERS, ALGERIA (May 14, 2007) ( REUTERS) PANNING WIDE SHOT OF ALGIERS SKYLINE (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 31st May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Algeria
  • Country: Algeria
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAF12HMPV298LZHNJQ7RT3Z410V
  • Story Text: Political parties in Algeria hold rallies on the last day of campaigning for parliamentary elections set to take place on Thursday.
    (Political parties in Algeria rallied today on the last day of campaigning for Parliamentary elections set for Thursday (May 17) amidst widespread public apathy and fears of resurgent political violence.
    While relatively large crowds turned out for campaign rallies of opposition and pro-government parties, many analysts say there is less public interest in the coming election than for any in recent Algerian political history.
    Lacking jobs and housing and worried by political violence, Algerians want change but suspect a new parliament won't deliver it.
    The apathy among many of the 33 million population appears born of a widespread conviction that the 389-seat assembly is dominated by a powerful executive and made up of politicians happy to rubber stamp its decisions.
    No major opposition parties are contesting the ballot and threatening the grip on power of the ruling FN (National Liberation Front) party -- the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), the group that was set to win the cancelled elections in 1992 that sparked a bloody civil conflict is banned and the main legal opposition party, the socialist Front of Socialist Forces (FFS), is boycotting the election.
    In a country where urban poverty is rife there is a widespread cynicism that the polls will be fair and transparent and a feeling that parliament serves little purpose.
    Added to the sense of apathy is pervasive anxiety about the security situation after a triple suicide bombing claimed by al Qaeda killed 33 in Algiers on April 11th, raising fears of a return to 1990s-style violence between the government and Islamist armed groups that killed over 200,000 people.
    Nevertheless several hundred supporters of a coalition of small opposition parties gathered in a school gym in the capital, Algiers to rally their efforts in advance of Thursday's poll.
    The two parties represented, the National Republican Alliance (ANR) and the Union for Democracy and Republicanism (UDR), represent the secular anti-Islamist trend, with the UDR also drawing support from Algeria's large Berber-speaking minority.
    The ANR is headed by one of Algeria's historical political figures, Rida Malek, who took part in the negotiations for Algeria's independence from France.
    The head of the UDR, charismatic former Housing Minister, Amara Ben Younes, condemned the recent attacks and blamed the government for dodging the issue of fundamentalism in the attacks.
    "This terrorism that is happening in Algeria is a fundamental type, terror by a political group that uses Islam as a religion as an excuse to damage and destroy the country and harm the morals of the Algerian society. We heard the prime minister saying that this was a cowardly and criminal attack. Correct, this was cowardly and criminal attack, but its also a terrorist attack, a fundamentalist terror attack," he said.
    Also today Ahmed Ouyahia, a former Algerian Prime Minister and head of a pro-government party running in Thursday's polls, addressed supporters in the western city of Chlef, which was hit hard by the bloody conflict of the 1990s.
    Chlef is also an area where the government set up civilian militias, called "Patriots", to fight the Islamist armed groups in the 1990s. Ouyahia was a key figure as Prime Minister in the program.
    Several thousand supporters of his Rally for National Democracy (RND) party cheered and waved flags as Ouyahia promised money and housing for the survivors and relatives of victims of the bloodshed.
    The RND, a member of the governing coalition, is expected to take second place in the election, behind FLN.
    While Algeria is rich in resources -- the southern arid regions produce oil and gas that is supplied to Europe and North America, while in the north oranges, roses and potatoes grow in neat fields among green lush mountains -- the country's development was stalled by the conflict of the 1990s which began with a revolt after an election that Islamists were expected to win was cancelled in 1992 and turned into a protracted war of massacres.
    The head of the major Islamist opposition party, Islah, was recently removed through bureaucratic means by the government and replaced with a more compliant figure.
    Islah's leader, Abdallah Djaballah, warned last month the government risked serious consequences of its manipulation of the political arena and claimed his party would have won a majority in the polls, presenting an echo of the events of 1992.
    Today in Chlef RND leader Ouyahia, seen as an eventual successor to Bouteflika, promised that the government would solve the country's many economic woes.
    "And today my brothers, after we defeated the war against death [terrorism], after we defeated sorrow, its about time that we defeat unemployment. Its about time we defeated dependence on petrol. Its about time that we guaranteed stability in Algeria for today and the future," he said.
    While Ouyahia's promises drew applause from the faithful, they will be difficult to follow through on, with unemployment having now reached crisis proportions.
    According to official figures, unemployment among people under 30, for example was 75 percent in 2005, up from 73 percent in 2004.
    To address social problems, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is leading an economic revival plan worth $140 billion to create two million jobs and build one million houses.
    On Thursday 18 million Algerian voters from the congested capital Algiers to the Saharan oil and gas towns of Adrar and Hassi Messaoud, will have the opportunity to choose among 12,229 candidates from 24 political parties and independents to steer the assembly for the next five years.
    While a great deal is at stake for Algeria's precarious future, it is doubtful that turnout for the election will reflect the importance of the occasion.
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