Algeria's Independent National Electoral Authority (INEC) announced on Saturday that five candidates have met the conditions for running for the December 12 ballot, including two prime ministers and a minister from outgoing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
The President of the Authority, Mohamed Sharafi, the names of the candidates accepted in the order of submission of their files, most notably the two former prime ministers Ali Ben Fleis, head of the Vanguards of Freedoms and Abdelmajid Teboun, the free candidate, both of whom served as prime minister during Bouteflika's 20-year rule before resigning in early April.
He explained that the file of the former Minister of Culture and Acting Secretary General of the National Democratic Rally, one of the pillars of the presidential alliance that supported Bouteflika, Izzedine Mihoubi, was accepted.
Among the candidates are the head of the National Building Movement, Abdelkader Ben Kreina, an Islamist party to which the speaker of the National People's Assembly (the first chamber of parliament) belongs, and Abdelaziz Belaid, who was a member of the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN), before defecting to form a party. "Future Front" is close to power.
Sharafi said that 23 applicants submitted his file to the Authority, not 22, as announced by the National Authority seven days ago at the closing of the candidacy door, and the files of 18 applicants were rejected because of the failure to meet the requirement to collect 50,000 forms signed by citizens registered in the electoral lists, To be distributed among 25 of the 48 wilayas in Algeria.