The uncertainty of absenteeism

There are few young people and women. 24 parties and 102 independent lists are in the running, and there is a total of 12 thousand enrolled on the 1,144 electoral register. With an array of meetings, congresses, television and radio appearances, the candidates have already begun the duel for the conquest of the trust of over 18 million Algerians called to the polling stations. They have also guaranteed themselves a place among the 389 seats in the National popular Assembly, the Parliament’s lower Chamber. The big surprise of these elections, according to many analysts, will be the rate of participation (the lowest ever recorded was at the legislatives in 2002, when, according to the Interior Minister, it barely reached 46%). “The post at stake for the authorities – writes El Watan – will be to convince those on the electoral register to go and vote”: “Not a mean feat – he adds – considering the disastrous numbers of the outgoing Popular national Assembly”.

Algerian newspapers have observed that at the last legislature there were faults such as the absenteeism of ministers or the fact of not having adopted the law on the declaration of one’s own patrimony. And in this climate of mistrust there is also the chaos which has characterised the formation of the lists at the level of all the political formations, “evidence – comments the daily newspaper La Tribune – of this real ‘gold rush’ which represents the parliamentary mandate”. The fear of absenteeism is such that even the authorities have run for cover, launching an anti-absenteeism-geared publicity campaign with the slogan ‘Min sdjili El Djazair’ (For Algeria).

Unemployment, youth and privatisation in the programmes

Although the appeal for citizens to go and vote in mass to stop vote-rigging acts as a leit motiv at the rallies of almost all the candidates, the priorities and themes of the various electoral programmes, on the other hand, are different. They are based on the programme of the president of the Republic Abdelaziz Bouteflika, from the National Liberation Front (FLN, nationalist) – whose honorary president is Bouteflika – who alone holds the majority of the outgoing Assembly and who forms the coalition of the government along with the Democratic union of the Algerian manifesto (RND, liberal) and the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP, Islamic).

Since the first rallies, especially the president of the Fln, the Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, has turned to the citizens, indicating that the reasons to vote for his party, the fact that “it is the backbone of the politics of the country” and that it will encourage “security and tranquillity in the Country”. Furthermore, he explained, the Fln has never made “false promises” and now has given itself the aim of carry forward the work it has already started and continuing to respond to the citizens’ “worries”. The ex-prime minister Ahmed Ouyahia, of the Democratic union of the Algerian manifesto (Rnd) also refers to the presidential programme but as a “constructive strength”, putting forward proposals to reach something similar to Bouteflika’s programme and to make it more efficient.

Opening the electoral campaign with the slogan “hope and hard work to guarantee national stability”, the Rnd has designed a programme of 140 points, in which certain priorities stand out, such as strengthening the road towards national reconciliation, giving new life to productive investment, the fight against unemployment and the safeguarding of acquired power. Ouyahia’s party has also stressed the importance of the question of security and the fight against corruption and electoral fraud, putting forward concrete measures such as modernisation and the development of fiscal services.

According to a survey conducted in the past week by the daily newspaper El Khabar, it is the fight against corruption which has shown to be the one which Algerians consider the priority which the electoral campaign should work on, following problems such as buying power, work, security, and housing. In fact, as well as at Rnd rallies, corruption was also talked about at rallies of the Union for Culture and Democracy (Rcd) of Saïd Sadi (according to whom electoral fraud has allowed the phenomenon to spread and has damaged the state’s credibility and the people’s trust in its institutions) and at rallies of the En-Nahda movement, which defined it as a factor of “desperation and depression” for young people. The third party in the government’s alliance, the Msp, is focusing on “regaining the citizens’ trust in the institutions and its elected members”. Its leader, Boudjerra Soltani, who wants to win 30% of the seats of the new Parliament, considers the next electionsto be “the key” which will lead to finding solutions to the situation in which the young generations find themselves in, and proposes a programme to build “a democratic and social state in line with the principles of Islam”.

The Islamic party El Islah (the reform) led by Mohamed Boulahia, third force in the outgoing parliament, offers himself as a promoter of “change” with a programme which groups 200 solutions to the citizens’ daily problems and invites voters to choose their representatives “wisely”. On the other hand, the war-horse of the workers’ party (Pt, radical left) of Louisa Hanoune, the only female-led party, and with 16 female candidates at the head of the list, is defending national sovereignty and the fight against “selling off” of public businesses, through privatization, which is a cause of unemployment: the political commitment of the militants in the party, as Hanoune reminds us, is in the direction towards “peace on all the national territory, building up democracy and economics which are independent from the diktats of the Fmi”.

The Rcd party of Sadi, who is back on the list after the boycott of 2002, has concentrated its campaign on establishing a democratic state which reflects the fight which took place during the Revolution and the fight against corruption. The National Republican Alliance (Anr) of Redha Malek, who joined forces with the Udr (Union for democracy and republic) to consolidate the presence of the democrats in the assembly, has organised the first phases of the campaign under the sign of the future and optimism, hoping that the vote will especially be “a chance for young people”. On the importance of young people in the running of the Country, he also pointed to the Algerian National Front (Fna) of Moussa Touati, who on a political level also insists on national reconciliation as the only way to “reunite” the Algerian people. The En-Nahda movement however, led by Fateh Radiai, has concentrated on its programme on the socioeconomic cultural and political situation of the Country, specifying his own commitment to peace and national reconciliation.

In this party of programmes and promises, in which many other minor parties are participating with little hope of winning even a few seats, the supporters of the boycott also have a role to play. These include the Front of socialist forces (Fsf, sociodemocratic) of Ait Ahmed, who is repeating his choice of 2002, and the ever faithful followers of Abdallah Djaballah, the ex-leader of ‘El Islah’ excluded from the consultation, who, skeptics of the possibility that they may lead to any real change, are looking to discredit these elections.

Translation by Sonia Ter Hovanessian