- Title: ALGERIA: LAST DAY OF CAMPAIGNING BEFORE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS.
- Date: 13th April 1999
- Summary: ALGIERS, ALGERIA (APRIL 12, 1999) (REUTERS) 1. GV/MV: ALGIERS/ STREET SCENES/ PEOPLE LOOKING AT ELECTION NOTICES/ STREET SCENES (7 SHOTS) 0.26 2. GV: CANDIDATE AND EX-PREMIER MOULOUD HAMROUCHE NEWS CONFERENCE 0.31 3. CU: SOUNDBITE (Arabic) HAMROUCHE SAYING : "chance for Algerians to change from bankrupt regime to a new Algeria and a new societ
- Embargoed: 28th April 1999 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ALGIERS, ALGERIA
- Country: Algeria
- Reuters ID: LVAEKVCMY1I9M942LEZYLRHA8IDI
- Story Text: Algeria's seven presidential candidates have stepped
up the search for votes on the last day of a gruelling
three-week campaign before the April 15 poll to choose a
successor to President Liamine Zeroual.
Algeria's 500,000-strong army, police and customs
agents began voting on Monday (April 12), while 643 mobile
units travelled to gather votes in remote areas of the North
African country, which has been torn by violence for years.
This time around, four opposition candidates have accused
the authorities of trying to fix the results in favour of army
candidate Abdelaziz Bouteflika, a former foreign minister
whose slogan is: "For a strong and dignified Algeria".
One of the candidates former Prime Minister Mouloud
Hamrouche told reporters on Monday the election was a "chance
for Algerians to change from a bankrupt regime to a new
Algeria and a new society."
Hamrouche as prime minister between 1989 and 1991, began
Algeria's political and economic reforms.
He, said on Monday that the four opposition candidates
were considering a pact under which just one of them would
face off against ex-Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who
is backed by most of the military establishment.
Hamrouche had said that he and two of his rivals,
Islamists Ahmed Taleb Ibrahimi and Abdallah Djaballah, would
meet late on Monday along with a representative of ailing
secular opposition leader Hocine Ait Ahmed, who is also a
candidate but is now in hospital in Switzerland.
But that meeting was postponed until Tuesday at 3:00 p.m.
(1400 GMT) because Djaballah was outside the capital Algiers
on the last day of campaigning before Thursday's (April 15)
poll, said the official from Ait Ahmed's FFS.
The four have all called for radical changes in the
government, and closely coordinated their position before
electioneering kicked off on March 25.
Politicians have said Bouteflika faced strong challenges
from Hamrouche and Ibrahimi, both enjoying support among the
young people who represent more than a third of Algeria's 17.5
million eligible voters.
Thousands of supporters, mostly university students,
attended a rally in central Algiers on Monday, waving
portraits of Hamrouche running under the slogan "Freedom and Change".
Bouteflika also held a popular rally in Algiers on the
same day.
Algeria plunged into violence in early 1992 after the
authorities scrapped a general election which radical
Islamists were poised to win.More than 70,000 people have
been killed since then.
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