Algeria's Islamist parties opt out of presidential elections

2009-02-10

The Islamist political movement in Algeria will not have a candidate for president in the upcoming elections, the first time it has happened since the advent of multi-party democracy.

By Achira Mammeri for Magharebia in Algiers – 10/02/09

[Getty Images] Former El Islah chief Abdellah Djaballah refused a government invitation to run as an independent candidate.

None of Algeria's Islamist political parties will field a candidate in the country's presidential elections in April. It will be the first time since the advent of multi-party elections that Islamists have been absent from this major electoral event.

Mahfoud Nahnah was an Islamist candidate for president in 1995, representing the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), but lost to General Liamine Zeroual. In the next elections in 1999, Nahnah was disqualified by the courts for not serving in the war of liberation, in accordance with Article 73 of the Algerian Constitution.

In 2004, the MSP abandoned its presidential aspirations and formed an alliance with the National Democratic Rally (RND) and National Liberation Front (FLN) to support the re-election campaign for Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The Islamist candidate came instead from El Islah, in the form of chairman and Ennahda founder Abdellah Djaballah. His campaign failed to earn him the presidency.

As Algeria prepares to elect its next leader, many political experts appear sceptical about the potential for change.

"In Algeria, the people do not hold the authority," said Djaballah at a press conference this week. "The authorities hold the people."

The Islamist politician, ousted from El Islah in a 2007 reorganisation, also said the government approached him through "official channels" to convince him to stand for election as an independent candidate, but that he refused. In his estimation, the constitution was revised for one reason: "To allow the outgoing president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, to run for a third term."

Equally critical of the 2009 elections is fellow Islamist party Ennahda. In a recent statement, the party's consultative committee said "the political climate in this country does not encourage participation".

Citing a lack of rotation in the ruling parties' leadership and restrictions in the political and media arenas, the committee added that the Islamist movement would do better to concentrate on its reconstruction.

El Islah, now without figurehead Abdellah Djaballah, finds itself in 2009 without a suitable candidate. Party leaders asked former Education Minister Ahmed Ben Mohamed to run, but he refused.

The MSP chose to remain in the ruling coalition and to support Bouteflika's proposed third term.

Leaders of the banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) are barred from political activity under the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, approved by Algerians in 2006.

Without a candidate to champion its goals, "the Islamist electorate will be absent from the presidential elections," said political journalist Amina Kateb.

According to Kateb, this voting bloc is significant in size, but still well below the numbers in 1990, the year in which the FIS became the country's top political party.

In the 2007 legislative elections, Islamist parties earned just 4% of the vote.

Walid Anouar, a reporter specialising in the Islamist movement, believes the parties constituting this bloc have been severely weakened. The ouster of Djaballah from El Islah and the appointment of government sympathiser Bouguerra Soltani as the head of the MSP are both examples, he said.

Finally, Anouar said the movement has never regained the public trust, since the violent days of the 1990s. "Algerians will not be so quick to forget the FIS experience."