Algerians are set to elect a new parliament on Thursday in polling that will go ahead despite a boycott call by the north African country’s sizable Berber minority.
Widespread apathy has been evident among Algeria’s 18 million voters ahead of the polls during a time of continuing civil war and severe economic hardship, notably among the Berbers, who make up about one-fifth of the country’s population of some 31-million.
Their Kabylie homeland has been a cauldron of discontent since a security forces crackdown last year in which dozens of Berbers were killed, and their malaise has galvanised dissent elsewhere in the country, spawning frequent riots and strikes.
The national unemployment rate officially exceeds 30%, exacerbated by a fiscal straitjacket imposed by international lenders in 1994.
A constitutional amendment passed in April making the Berber language Tamazight a national language did little to satisfy the minority’s quest for cultural recognition, an improved economic lot and an end to perceived endemic official corruption.
Tribal leaders have scorned Thursday’s elections as a sham and vowed to do everything in their power to disrupt polling.
And two pro-Berber opposition parties — the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) and the Socialist Forces Front (FFS) — have called for a boycott of the elections.
Parliamentary elections have a dismal track record in Algeria, which was ruled solely by the National Liberation Front (FLN) from independence in 1962 until 1991, when multi-party politics was introduced and ill-fated elections were held.
The all-powerful military aborted the vote fearing certain victory for the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), which had planned to set up an Islamic state in Algeria.
The move unleashed a civil war that has since claimed some 150 000 lives and continues despite a reconciliation program under which thousands of fighters surrendered.
Fighting in the war has surged in the run-up to Thursday’s elections, with nearly 600 people killed since the start of the year.
The last parliamentary elections, in 1997, were marred by massive fraud, and President Abdelaziz Bouteflika — himself elected in 1999 when all his opponents withdrew charging vote-rigging — has sought to ward off a recurrence by setting up an electoral watchdog group in April.
The current ruling coalition comprises the National Democratic Rally (RND), founded in 1997 under then president Liamine Zeroual; the FLN, and the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), a moderate Islamist party.
Most observers and a large section of the press expect the same forces to dominate the next parliament, a prediction supported by a voter survey carried out by the daily El Watan which found 70 percent of respondents planning to vote for one of the three parties.
The Berber region is represented by only about 30 deputies in the outgoing National Assembly, which will count 389 seats after Thursday’s polling, with some 10 000 candidates in the running.
Campaign rallies have attracted mediocre crowds and some have been cancelled. – AFP