A crowd of exceptional magnitude manifest in Algiers on the last Friday before the presidential election, massively rejected by Algerians, said an AFP journalist.
A strong challenge the presidential election
The participation, impossible to estimate precisely because of the absence of official counting, seems comparable to that of November 1 - when the march coincided with the 65th anniversary of the beginning of the war of independence - and those of the most major events in March, April and May. Protesters, many of them women, clap their hands, shouting in unison "Makache (no) vote", "Civil and non-military status".
After having obtained in April the resignation of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, president during 20 years, the popular movement of protest which agitates the country since February demands the dismantling of the totality of the "system", in power since the independence of the country in 1962 The movement ("Hirak") believes that the presidential election of December 12 is only to allow the same "system" of this regenerate. "No backtrack", "No vote, we swear we will not stop," we heard as the tide began to move in the early afternoon to a 41st consecutive Friday of mobilization in the center of the capital, to the sound of youyous women.
A call to the general strike
"I will not vote and December 8th I close my shop," also chanted the protesters, releasing a call to the general strike from Sunday, broadcast on social networks. "Hey Gaid Salah, forget the vote!" on December 12, they also launched at the address of the Chief of Staff of the army, which exercises de facto power since the departure of Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Speaking for the first time on a Friday since the beginning of "Hirak", the head of the army spoke in a speech "a crucial and important deadline, namely the presidential elections of December 12 which will, thanks to the help from Allah the Almighty, an election festival, through which the will of the people is realized ".
Despite a crackdown on demonstrations which, according to Amnesty International, "intensified" in the run-up to 12 December, the protest shows Friday that it remains massively mobilized against the polls, for which the power claims to see "a popular impetus ".