Algeria searches for a leader

By Amira Howeidy

"From now on, access to power through free election will be an irreversible practice," said Lamari, adding that Zeroual took his decision based on the "principle of alternating power to bring new behaviour and responsible attitudes in political practice."

While Lamari's stance reflects the ongoing power struggle in Algeria, it clearly runs counter to the country's constitution. According to the recently amended constitution, the president's term, which used to be three years, is now five. Although opposition parties criticised the amendment, viewing it as another form of the military's centralisation of power in Algeria, it was passed, thus extending Zeroual's term to the year 2000.

On the other hand, the concept of alternating power itself remains a questionable matter to many. "We thought that the era of coups d'état was over after the resignation of President Chazli Benjdid and the assassination of President Mohamed Boudiaf," said Khaled Ben-Ismail, secretary-general of the Movement for the Democracy of Algeria (MDA), led by former Algerian president Ahmed Ben-Bella, "but it seems that we were wrong in this assumption."

Although Zeroual invited the political parties to nominate their candidates for the presidential elections in February, observers argue that Algeria's next president will be chosen from the military circle and will most likely be a retired general like Zeroual.

The election law stipulates that in order to qualify, each presidential candidate must collect at least 75,000 signatures from voters, or 600 from local representatives in more than half of the country's 48 districts.

However, the question is, will a military man unknown to the Algerians meet these strict demands? Moreover, who can the army nominate to win public acceptance at a time when Algeria's political and economic situation is at its worst? Not only are the number of victims of the six-year-old state of violence rising and the almost daily massacres and killings unstoppable, but economic conditions are equally chaotic. The rate of inflation is steadily increasing, and unemployment, which has stood at a high of 30 per cent for the past five years, is rapidly rising as more public sector enterprises continue to adopt mass layoffs in the course of the switch to a market-driven economy. Two weeks ago, a disillusioned trade union threatened a general strike, triggering fear of another popular outburst similar to the violent 1988 riots.

"Algeria needs a leader like Abdel-Qader Al-Jazaeiri [nationalist leader against the French occupation] and Mohamed Boudiaf [former Algerian president]," argues an Algerian analyst.

But if the political situation is reflected in the political parties' stands, then Algeria may be facing harder times ahead. "The resignation of Zeroual only proves that decision-making is still not taking place inside the institution," said Hussein Ayat-Ahmed, secretary-general of the Front for Socialist Forces (FFS). "What happened is not any different from the January 1992 events when the army violated the constitution [by canceling the elections which the Islamists were poised to win]." He added that Algeria is not "a state which upholds the supremacy of the law."

Algeria's political parties have not announced their candidates for the presidential elections and are yet to meet with Zeroual as he promised in his speech two weeks ago. Moreover, the angry tones evident in the political party leaders' statements seem to underline the state of uncertainty dominating the Algerian street. "It seems that despite the presidential and legislative elections and all the attempts for political reform, we are back to square one. The army has violated the law and scrapped Algeria's only free elections," said a well-informed source who was a leading member of the former ruling National Liberation Front (FLN).

"If miracles can happen, let us hope that the army has learned its lesson and pays more attention to its original role and leaves decision-making to the right people," added the source who requested anonymity. "All this makes it all the more difficult to find our next president."