By RFIPalled on 03-09-2019Modified on 03-09-2019 at 01:48
In a speech on Monday, September 2, from the city of Ouarghla where he was on a working visit, the army chief of staff Ahmed Gaïd Salah asked that the decree allowing the convocation of the electorate be published on September 15 next.
This publication would pave the way for a presidential election before the end of the year. This prerogative is constitutionally vested in Acting President Abdelkader Bensalah, while a large part of the popular protest movement believes that a vote would not make sense before the establishment of transitional institutions. But the army wants to go fast.
Until then, the powerful General Gaid Salah had merely called for " accelerating " the march towards an election. But this time, it is more precise: it is necessary to start September 15 legal procedure launching the presidential election, he said in a speech from the city of Ouargla. This launch would pave the way for a vote within three months, probably in mid-December.
A man is now under pressure: Acting President Abdelkader Bensalah. He has already set up a body to make recommendations for the holding of a credible presidential election. The declaration of the chief of the armies sounds, if not as an order, at least as a blow of pressure. An instruction, says a journalist, disrespectful protocol.
Protesters and their representatives have been opposing for months the idea of a premature presidential election. Above all, they demand a profound reform of the state and the constitution. An option rejected by the general, who merely refer to the revision of " some texts of the electoral law ", but no more. And who severely warned those who would oppose this roadmap. For the military, says an observer, the institutional vacuum weakens Algeria against its opponents. And according to them, this can not last beyond 2019.
On the same subject
Algeria: August 30 marks the 28th consecutive Friday of protests
After six months of dispute, Algeria at the crossroads
comments