On the eve of what is shaping up as the most democratic presidential election to date to be held in Algeria, the press and three of the six candidates in the polls on Wednesday accused the incumbent Abdelaziz Bouteflika of plotting to steal the vote.
The tabloid press, quoting ”very reliable sources”, described a Machiavellian series of events in which state television would first announce phony results on Thursday evening, followed by the staging of massive street celebrations and a bloody crackdown on the expected backlash.
”Without the ballots, a putsch!” screamed the front page of the daily Le Soir.
The candidates — as well as the European Parliament’s observer mission — agree that a first-round victory by Bouteflika, given the apparent distribution of support among the six candidates, would raise suspicions.
A communiqué issued on Tuesday by the president’s three top challengers — his arch-rival Ali Benflis, Islamic candidate Abdallah Djaballah and Said Sadi, a secularist — alleged a ”plot” was being hatched in which Bouteflika’s camp would claim victory with 53% to 55% of the vote before all the ballots are counted.
The swirling charges as the clock ticks down to Thursday’s polling are reminiscent of the atmosphere ahead of the 1999 election that brought Bouteflika to power. Then, all six of his rivals — who included Djaballah — pulled out the day before, claiming that vote-rigging was already in full swing.
The private newspaper Liberte said Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni would be coerced into playing the role of ”big orchestrator of the electoral hold-up”.
Ahmed Fattani, publisher of the daily L’Expression, said a first-round win by Bouteflika was likely given his popularity and his efforts to end the traumatising civil war in the North African country of 32-million people.
Muslim extremists launched the war in 1992, after the army cancelled the second round of a legislative election they were poised to win. About 150 000 people, mainly civilians, have died in the war since then.
Bouteflika ”has done things that aren’t bad. He could do better, but in terms of security, now you can go out at night. There was a time when there were 500 people killed a day,” Fattani said.
While the president deserved to be re-elected in the first round, if he has to face an unprecedented run-off vote two weeks from now, ”then we’ll be in a real democracy”.
He compared the two scenarios to the difference between black-and-white and colour television.
”Which would you want?” he asked.
Fattani’s L’Expression on Wednesday ran an exclusive interview with Ahmed Taleb Ibrahimi, a respected former foreign minister who was one of the six candidates who withdrew in 1999.
”Everything depends on the conditions on the day of the vote,” Ibrahimi said. ”In my opinion, if there is no fraud, a second round is inevitable.”
For the first time since independence more than four decades ago, many Algerians sense that their vote can make a real difference this time, after assuming on past occasions — even in the multiparty elections allowed since 1990 — that the all-powerful military had pre-selected the winner.
What makes this election especially unpredictable is that Benflis, like Bouteflika a product of the military-backed establishment, is the president’s top challenger.
Encouraged by liberalisation of the electoral law, a declaration of neutrality by the military and the invitation of international observers, the candidates have mounted spirited campaigns described as ”American-style” in the press.
”The fact that the candidates are still there means that in the minds of the candidates, the elections are still worth contesting,” Pasqualina Neapoletano, head of the European Parliament observer team, told reporters on Tuesday.
She said that if one candidate wins in a landslide, or just more than 50%, ”that will mean that something’s wrong. We’re not stupid.” — Sapa-AFP