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2012-05-15

Algerian Islamists challenge election results

By Lyes Aflou for Magharebia in Algiers – 15/05/12

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Several political parties, largely Islamists, are challenging the results of Algeria's legislative election.

The National Liberation Front (FLN) came away with 220 out of a possible 462 seats in the People's National Assembly, according to the preliminary tally released Friday (May 11th). But those displeased with the outcome have spoken of irregularities and alleged fraud in the way the election process was handled.

Those complaining include the Green Algeria Alliance, comprising the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), al-Islah and Ennahda, which said that "an 'Algerian Spring' via the ballot box has been postponed".

The Front for Change (FC), led by the MSP dissident and former industry minister Abdelmadjid Menasra, declared on Saturday that Algeria had "thrown away the opportunity for peaceful change".

The Islamist parties' consultative committees will meet separately next weekend to decide how to deal with the current state of affairs. Abderrahmane Saïdi, who chairs the MSP's consultative committee, pointed out that his organisation "will not take any decision which threatens the country's stability".

Meanwhile, Moussa Touati's Algerian National Front (FNA) said it would challenge the Constitutional Council over its nine seats, claiming a "fraudulent process". His case is expected to be followed by a string of smaller parties.

Louisa Hanoune, who chairs the Labour Party, described the ballot as an "unacceptable abuse of power", following the loss of at least six of its previous 26 seats. The press has quoted her as saying that her organisation won 11 seats in Algiers. "The next day, four seats were unceremoniously taken away," she claimed.

Adjustments were under way in a number of wilayas before the final results could be announced. The Constitutional Council has 72 hours from receiving the final results to make an announcement. Those wishing to challenge results will then have 48 hours to present their claims.

"We refuse to recognise these results," said Abdallah Djaballah, founding chairman of the Islamist Front for Justice and Development (FJD), whose newly-approved party won only seven seats.

With the FLN's 220 seats combined with Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia's National Democratic Assembly (RND), which has 72 seats, the ruling party has achieved an absolute majority. Taken together, the Islamist parties have a total of 59 MPs, the 3rd strongest group in the Assembly.

"The last poll conducted by the government before the election campaign ended – and we have the documents to prove this – gave us 65 seats," Djaballah said.

The Islamist leader went on to say the elections were a "travesty" and "an attack on the will of the people". The election "has created a situation of insecurity and instability", said Djaballah, who ran as a candidate in the presidential elections in 1999 and 2004.

"We are in talks with the various parties which have rejected these elections to reach a common position," said the FJD's chairman, refusing to rule out the possibility of a collective withdrawal from the next APN.

The Front of Socialist Forces (FFS), the oldest opposition party, which returned to the political arena after a 10-year boycott, stated that "the system used all its ingenuity to consolidate its hold on power," and took note of the results, to which it would respond "politically". It won 21 seats, before having one of them taken away and handed to the RND.

For its part, the secular Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), which boycotted the ballot, said "the status quo has been confirmed".

The election monitoring committee (CNSL) has received a few complaints about incidents occurring during the ballot. This wave of complaints is however in marked contrast to the positive appraisal from the 500 foreign observers.

José Ignacio Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra, who led a mission of 150 observers from the European Union, said at a press briefing that the conditions under which voting took place "were generally satisfactory, apart from a few very isolated minor incidents".

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  1. Anonymous_thumb

    CHAOUI 2012-6-1

    To أبوحسام من الجزائر العاصم- You are not speaking of the noble, proud and beautiful country that I know and have the joy of living in. Your nightmarish vision is your own fantasy and that of the enemies of Algeria from the many coasts of the Mediterranean. The Algeria in which I live and know well is doing marvellously, by God, because its people are more alert, sure-footed and on the lookout than ever!!! Do not let anyone smoke you up – not even with “springtime”! It must be said that the latter was in bad taste and rather looks like an autumn or winter of total anarchy! Do they have the mind to stand at the window as brave people and harass these people like this? “You should do your /Arab spring/ quick, quick, quick!” Is this how it is? Perhaps these people have no reason to feel concerned about the Arab spring? This is their right? They have their own springtime – their own – in their country at their time. And the prefer November! Who do these louts take themselves for? Are they looking to replace the Great Watchmaker of the Universe? Are the claiming to do better or else how could it be as such? No, truly, the Algeria that I know – my Algeria – and that adore is doing marvellously well despite the hostility of the bizarre and aggressive spring, the global crisis and the turbulent border and the other scourges to numerous to list here, Algeria and its people are on course. It must be pointed out that the context is not at all relaxing, but that does not capture the attention of the mercenaries in the service of the people’s enemies, for whom compromise is no longer an option. The main them for them is to sit on a seat in power. Thank God there are dozens of millions of us who are watching over Algeria, God willing!

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  2. Anonymous_thumb

    أبوحسام من الجزائر العاصمة 2012-5-26

    The Algerian regime is dying now. It is playing the last card to stick to power. It is randomly floundering because the first judge in the country is incapable of doing his duties and during his rule Algeria witnessed the worst periods of economic and social development in spite of the financial affluence. This led to sweeping public anger featured by protests and allies which have become the only way to get some usurped rights as a result of the policy of provisional solutions and narrow score settlings. Everything in the country has dropped including agriculture, industry and services. So Algeria no longer has its daily living. Beggars are now everywhere, sights of gloominess, anger and violence are in every street. Killing, suicide, drugs, rapes, kidnappings, robbery and verbal abuse are features of the daily life of the Algerian young man. Therefore, this is the highest level of collapse of an oppressive regime.

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  3. Anonymous_thumb

    abc ... 2012-5-24

    Soprano’s definition of “cleanliness” is not that of the common vocabulary, but clearly the jargon of Islamists under imperialist orders. “Clean” is anything that serves their interests. Do not look for morality or legality in this. This is the motto of “the ends justify the means!” – revisited by the Islamists. It is not sensitive, but rather hard. A sensitive mind would refrain from it! The people’s memories are infallible! And human greed is limitless!

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    Gus 2012-5-24

    The Islamists are themselves taken hostage by their greed and deceit, which throws them into the sharpened claws of the frenzied big shots, who are thirsty for the people’s resources. Not content with their crime of using the Holy for their vulgar and base interests, they have solicited “generosity” in violation of authentically democratic laws (not those of a sell-out parody imposed on us) and of basic morality. They find themselves obligated to them, having to follow the road map, whose content they do not know since they were not the ones who wrote it or who are benefiting from the program!!! They are thus in the impossible position of someone who has to answer to decisions that are not his own, execute orders that he has not elaborated himself and so does not know where this is going to lead him. How can such irresponsibility claim to preside over the destinies of a people such as the Algerian people? Do you have to be blinded with greed in order to engage in such machinations, which are doomed from the start to a fiasco??? The Islamists have committed the deadly sin of betrayal. They will pay eternally! Do not insult the people! They are your master! You are only microbes without them!

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  5. Anonymous_thumb

    "ALTO" 2012-5-24

    To Soprano- You are only this in name; the talent is absent and your ranting tortures the ears of common mortals! The Algerian people constitute a republican front to save Algeria, which has been threatened. Millions of them took to the streets and the town squares of Algeria on the day after what should be called – according to the memory of the survivors – the most hideous coup against the Republic, against democracy, against the institutions and against the sovereign people using fraud and terror on a scale never rivaled before by the bloodthirsty mercenaries, who took hostage the people’s community assemblies violently and in violation of all of the legal rules. They claimed to assassinate the republic!!! That the forceful electoral coup of 1991 is your reference for democracy and clean elections speaks volumes about the villainous maneuvering that you belong to in the service of the enemies of the people, whom you serve while throwing your soul to the Devil. So choose to live with your models and your masters, who finance you and manipulate you to the point of saying non-sens! But they do not want you, and for good reason! What would they do with colonial collaborators? These people are the people of the major general! May you get that straight! They have nothing to do with sell-outs and will never let themselves be manipulated by godless and lawless shady puppets!

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  6. Anonymous_thumb

    أبو حسام من الجزائر العاصمة 2012-5-22

    The only political party which has a wide popular force is the Islamic Salvation Front in spite of the mean conspiracy by generals of the army, the selfishness of Islamic parties which refused to join it, on top of them MSP led by Nahnah, may God rest his soul in peace. As a result, power remained with an iron fist in the hands of the military, slandering Islamists in order to undermine their unity to save time to eliminate them so that the country would be in a bad position. There is no legitimate ruler to deter and no citizen to recommend. Positions are bought with money, looting by the ton, and wasting treasury funds in the hustle and bustle for every artist from all countries. This is the situation of Algeria. However, the Algerian people are still faithful to the Salvation Front which spoiled the event of Islamists and politicians on May 10, 2012 with its terrible boycott which cast doubt and caused fear to those who seized their choice in 1992. Thus, the spell turned against the sorcerer. This requires the return of the Islamic Front to lead the Umma with pride and dignity supported by millions of young people concerned about their religion and homeland.

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    younsi djamel 2012-5-22

    Even if there was so called “fraud”, what were the representatives of the Islamists doing in the polling stations? They were supposed to attend and check on how the election went! And the UN, African Union, Arab League, EEC, and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference got no complaints on that day from the Islamists because there is no proof! The Algerian Islamists are and will remain bad losers and liars! They are against Islam, the hypocritical idiots!!!

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  8. Anonymous_thumb

    soprano 2012-5-22

    The cleanest elections of all time were the ones in 1991 with the victory of the true Islamists, the FIS. As for the current so-called Islamist parties, they are only puppets in the service of a criminal state, which has not let go of power since ’62, and all the Algerians know that they are making use of large-scale fraud across the board. This is a tyrannical state, which does not stop murdering people in the opposition. The sponsors are known and the masks have fallen. The generals are France’s corporals: Nezzar, Mediene, etc.

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  9. Anonymous_thumb

    أجمد 2012-5-20

    I see that the colonizer managed to fragment the Arab Umma by demarcating borders between their people. Unfortunately, Arab regimes enhanced this. We ask God to unite the ranks of the Umma.

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  10. Anonymous_thumb

    أبو حسام 2012-5-19

    With the victory of FLN in the elections, it was a political plot against conspiracies so that it makes concessions to France on the Day of Independence and hide the conflict of authorities and cover the manipulations of the veteran party in many fields since the days of national action and allow hidden faces to reach power in order to put an end to the alliance of Islamists and sympathisers of the Islamic Salvation Front, cut communication with its valiant leaders and kill the living conscience of the Algerian people who expressed with terrible silence the boycott, whose votes were confiscated in 1992 and thrown to prisons. You should know dear reader that I supervised elections as head of an electoral station in the capital. The turnout was very, very, very low. Only elderly men participated and the party of green Algeria won, but?! Algeria is a dictator state in a democratic dress.

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  11. Anonymous_thumb

    Algérien 2012-5-18

    A man from a small or large household presents himself as the steward in place of the sovereign people. The mops, rugs and other homemade detergents are available (a hose is not allowed because it is prohibited and does not exist), so may he use all his know-how on them. But, there is one basic peace of advice: well-deserved charity starts with oneself. May he give a good forceful brush with the duster to the nooks and crannies of his dusty brain. You can see the linens from here, so may he remove them and his tenant – the venomous spider that lives to the detriment of the organism hosting him – in the same stroke.

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  12. Anonymous_thumb

    Watani 2012-5-17

    If the Islamists were not infinitely contestable across the board themselves, their contestation would make sense. But, there you have it, the sovereign people categorically rejected them in 1991, in serving them a historical “No!” despite their show of force through manipulation and fraud on a very massive scale as well as terror, which aimed to defeat and enslave the people. These stupid, amnesiac and notorious repeat offenders have shamelessly returned to the front and are claiming to have won. Well, where do they think they are? At a cattle auction? They do politics like horse dealers. But the Algerian people are not a people to be sold! Our sacred religion is our common good too! May they return to their little businesses and vile tricks. Politics are a matter that is too serious for them.

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  13. Anonymous_thumb

    benchikh mounis 2012-5-16

    Had to be the big cleaning!

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  14. Anonymous_thumb

    SALEH 2012-5-16

    God is sufficient for us and He is the best disposer of affairs!

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  15. Anonymous_thumb

    ' Tziri 2012-5-16

    [2] Continuation … The only rampart against this hegemonic forcing of hand, which is called most recently, the Arab spring, are the republicans – the real ones (since, it should be remembered, there are republics today that accommodate today’s imperialist like they did yesterday’s colonialism and slavery). “Values” and “principles” require attention and should not be taken like money without examination because they do not have the same content, which depends on the latitude and hemisphere. Congratulations to all the Algerian republicans for their sense of civic responsibility, their political acumen and their infinite love of Algeria so that the future of their children will be radiant, God willing!

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  16. Anonymous_thumb

    ' Tziri 2012-5-16

    [1] The howling of the Islamists is nothing but an expression of emotion and hysteria at the rejection of these parties. These parties should take not of the sovereign Algerian people’s definitive rejection of all their attempts at political manipulation of the people’s most precious common good: Islam. History is never renewed in the same way even if it may sometimes stutter a bit. The people are excellent students. They are graduates of all categories – whether or not it is to the liking of the jealous people, the perverts of all stripes and the "filthy" propagandists, who serve the “universal” singular thought. The outcome of these legislative elections was a “miracle” called for by all the Algerian republicans determined to resist the forcing of hand by foreign interference, which is cynically called the “Arab spring”, which is a planned pandemic with the aim of – once again – robbing our peoples of their sovereignty and jeopardizing the integrity of our states. These people are educated by the most prestigious think tank that there is: history, and they know when the republic is put in danger and by whom. So, they are the vanguard to save Algeria, which is what May 10th 2012 is a symbol of. The brutal forcing of hand by the hegemonic globalisation of ultra-liberal capitalism, which is devastating for world peace and, more particularly, for our states under its influence, is putting our stability, integrity and national sovereignty in danger. The only rampart against this hegemonic forcing of hand, which is called most recently, the Arab spring, are the republicans – the real ones (since, it should be remembered, there are republics today that accommodate today’s imperialist like they did yesterday’s colonialism and slavery). To be continued …

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