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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 April 1999 Issue No. 426 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 April 1999 Issue No. 426
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Special Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Bouteflika wins,
By Khaled Dawoud
but who's the loser?Until the 11th hour of Algeria's 19-day campaign for presidential elections, which officially ended on Monday 12 April, all the indications were that the seven candidates were mobilising their supporters in anticipation of a "democratic wedding". On 15 April over 17 million Algerians were expected to freely choose for the first time their president, the seventh since independence in 1962.
However, there was neither wedding nor the longed-for democracy. Six of the candidates pulled out less than 16 hours before voting was due to start, leaving the door wide open for the 62-year-old former Foreign Minister Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika to win the election, uncontested.
According to official figures released by the Interior Ministry last Friday, Bouteflika, known among Algerians as Sidi Abdel-Qader, took almost 74 per cent of the votes, after a controversial poll in which 60 per cent of voters took part.
Before the withdrawal of the six candidates, election fever was running high. On Monday 12 April theatres and main squares were packed with hundreds of thousands of Algerians chanting slogans, raising Algerian flags and expressing their hope for an end to more than a decade of instability, deteriorating economic conditions and, over the past seven years, a bloody circle of violence which has claimed almost 80,000 lives.
Algerians, as well as the international community, were optimistic: the number of candidates contesting the elections was not only unprecedented in Algeria but throughout the whole of the Arab world. Furthermore, the diversity of the candidates' backgrounds and their election agendas fuelled people's hopes.
Ahmed Talib Ibrahimi, a former foreign minister, is seen as representing the moderate trend within the outlawed Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). He hails from a family of Islamic scholars. Hocein Ait-Ahmed, the 73-year-old national leader -- currently in Geneva receiving medical treatment -- is considered a national hero by the majority of the country's Berbers. Mouloud Hamrouch, a former prime minister, played an influential role under former President Chedli Bendjedid in liberalising the economy, selling off public sector companies and introducing democratic reforms.
Meqdad Sifi, another former prime minister, was in power during the 1988 bread riots and the ensuing violence which escalated after the army cancelled the 1991 elections, the first round of which had been won by the FIS. Saad Abdullah Gaballah, an Islamist, wants reconciliation not only for the moderate FIS leaders but with the extremist Armed Islamic Group (GIA) militants.
Youssef Khatib, a prominent Liberation War figure and former adviser to President Liamine Zeroual, on the other hand, rejects reconciliation with the Islamists.
During campaigning throughout Algeria's 48 welayat (provinces), all of the candidates called on their supporters to turn out on election day to ensure free elections. But, on 13 April, the six candidates running against Bouteflika met to discuss what they described as indications of vote rigging. Early voting had started on Monday in isolated areas of the Algerian desert, and for Algerian expatriates and army and security men.
According to local analysts, the real aim of the meeting, however, was to send a message to the authorities and the army that the candidates would not tolerate any fraud.
On Tuesday night, the candidates demanded an immediate meeting with President Zeroual and called on him to cancel the results of voting that had already taken place. Expectations were that Zeroual would meet the six to reassure them.
But on Wednesday, Zeroual announced that he would not meet the candidates. In a statement circulated by the Algerian Press Agency, the president said he had given the candidates all the assurances they needed and that it was unconstitutional for him to cancel the votes.
According to law, the Constitutional Council is the only authority empowered to cancel results after allegations of rigging have been investigated.
In response to Zeroual's refusal, the six candidates withdrew from the elections. Zeroual announced voting would go ahead as scheduled and described the reasons given by the six as "weak and unjustified".
Mohamed Bedjaoui, head of the Independent National Committee for Monitoring Elections, who had taken leave from his post of judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to monitor the elections, appeared on television on Wednesday night and described the candidates' decision as "political and not legal".
The candidates, however, held the regime responsible for their decision and insisted that they would not take part in elections where the results are decided in advance. According to Ibrahimi, sympathisers within the regime towards the candidates had informed them of a decision to rig the elections in Bouteflika's favour.
Other informed Algerian sources claim it was Sifi who told the other candidates that he had reliable information that the regime was determined that Bouteflika would win the elections. Sifi, who is known to have close contacts with the regime, announced immediately after the results were revealed that he was no longer a member of what had turned into a sort of coalition between the six candidates.
The six had previously issued a joint report claiming that vote rigging had taken place in mobile and special polling stations. The candidates said the authorities had tried to prevent their representatives from monitoring voting in these stations, by giving them the wrong addresses or starting the polling earlier than scheduled. In some cases, representatives of the six candidates were attacked by Bouteflika's supporters and kicked out of polling stations.
Some commentators, however, say the candidates pulled out because they felt their chances had been weakened after Mahfouz Nahnah, the pragmatic leader of the Movement for Peaceful Society -- better known as Hamas -- announced he had joined three other major parties in supporting Bouteflika.
An Algerian child helping her mother cast her ballot in the 15 April presidential elections. One day later, Algerian police violently dispersed demonstrators who protested the results (photos: AFP)
Nahnah came second to President Zeroual in the 1995 elections and won 25 per cent of the vote. As a result, he was given seven ministries in the current government, seven Hamas governors and a similar number of ambassadors. The ruling National Democratic Rally (RND), the National Liberation Front (FLN), the Islamic Nahda parties and Hamas have all suffered internal divisions after announcing their support for Bouteflika. However, the RND and the FLN continue to be in control of a large number of voters described by critics as the 'beni oui oui', who will vote for the candidate proposed by the regime.
"The six candidates were hoping a second round of elections would have to be held if no one succeeded in winning 50 per cent of the vote in the first round," said a well-informed source on condition of anonymity. "But in the last few days, people were predicting that Bouteflika would win 52 to 53 per cent of the votes and that there would be no second round."
The end result of the candidates' withdrawal was that the multi-presidential elections turned into a referendum on Bouteflika's popularity. Shortly after casting his vote, Bouteflika told reporters that he would stay at home if he did not win with a reasonable majority. By all accounts, it appears the Algerian Interior Ministry and those in power who backed Bouteflika did not want to disappoint him, announcing a turnout of 10.5 million people or 60.25 per cent of Algeria's 17.5 million voters.
But in the absence of international monitors, it was difficult to verify these figures. However, according to the accounts of international journalists present at the polling stations, the turnout could not be as high as the government claimed.
The Weekly toured at least 10 polling stations in the capital, Algiers, and six other stations in the towns of Bleida and Sidi Kabir. Both towns, located almost 50 kilometres south of the capital, are known as hotbeds of GIA terrorism, but are also strongholds for Nehnah who called on his supporters to participate in the polls. Yet, the turnout, up to a few hours before voting ended at 7pm, did not exceed 20 to 30 per cent. Journalists present in other regions gave similar accounts, particularly in places where the Ministry of Interior insisted turnout was the highest.
The ministry accused reporters of basing their accounts on polling stations in Algiers, where turnout is traditionally low, and ignoring areas where Bouteflika had a strong support base.
The government refused to recognise the decision by the six candidates to withdraw, and announced their results, claiming that Ibrahimi had came second followed by Gaballah, Ait-Ahmed, Hamrouche, Sifi and Khatib.
Mustafa Boushashi, an Algerian lawyer and human rights activist, said the candidates had raised the possibility of withdrawing from the elections since the beginning of the election campaign. "In their regular meetings, they confirmed they would not take part in anything except free elections. They also emphasised that if they felt at any stage the results were being fixed, they would pull out," said Boushashi.
"I think their decision to withdraw was a responsible one because the regime here wants to continue in power without any true pluralism. It managed to convince the world that there was pluralism in Algeria and that the country would have pluralistic elections. But the reality is that the candidate favoured by the regime wins and the regime's policy is implemented. The withdrawal of the six candidates is an indication of their disapproval of superficial democracy," Boushashi told the Weekly.
He also rejected the argument that the candidates should have waited until elections were over before protesting through existing legal channels. "Previous experiences have proved that waiting until the end of the elections to complain of rigging will not change the outcome. Continuing to participate in the elections would have given them legitimacy."
However, Amir Taheri, an Iranian expert on Algerian politics, who was in Algiers to follow the voting, criticised the candidates' decision. "They are all controlled by the dictatorial mentality of the '60s," he said. "How could they take such an important decision without consulting their supporters or the thousands of people who attended their rallies. There were no guarantees that Bouteflika would win the first round and, for the first time, there was a feeling that every single vote would make a difference. But the six candidates acted like children, saying that if they didn't win, they didn't want to play. The first rule in politics, as the Americans say, is 'if you want to win it, you have got to be in it'."
However, Taheri sounded a more optimistic note for the future. "Most of the candidates have been out of politics for at least two decades and know nothing about new Algerian realities. By the next elections, they will have been replaced by younger Algerians who have been active in more recent day-to-day politics. They will make a better performance," he said. "Also the elements inside the army who still believe they can always make their candidate win will not be there. Algerians can now look forward to better elections in the future."
The Algerian people were similarly divided over the candidates' decision to pull out. Many people who turned up to vote said they felt cheated. "How can they withdraw just like that," said Ahmed Hefnawi, a government employee who was casting his ballot at a school in Algiers. "What about all the promises made and the money spent in this campaign? I am certain this is the wrong decision." On the other hand, Zohra, a university student, supported the decision. "I did not have hope in the first place that change would take place or that the military would suddenly change its mind," she said. "The six are well-known leaders with a long history and they must have known what they were doing. I am happy they did not allow the government to cheat us again."
At the city of Bleida, Aleem Sid Ahmed, a worker, said he went to vote because he was afraid the authorities would accuse him of "being undemocratic or not a real nationalist" and refuse to give him any services he might need in the future. The independent daily newspaper Al-Youm reported on Monday that one voter insisted on casting a vote on behalf of his sick brother who had been lying in hospital, also because he feared the consequences of not voting. When he was not allowed to cast his brother's vote, he took his brother by taxi to the polling station to vote, despite his condition.
'Give him one year'
'The game was up'
