Hopes for Multi-Party Election to End Algeria’s Nightmare Die With April 15 One-Candidate Choice

By Faisal Kutty

With more than 50 candidates initially slated to run for the presidency, Algeria appeared ready to give democracy a chance. But appearances can be deceiving. In a matter of a few weeks the 50 candidates—through technicalities and disqualification—dwindled to 12, to 7 and eventually to one lone candidate. The April 15 vote, therefore, merely confirmed the appointment of that army-backed candidate, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, as president.

From the moment Algeria’s military-backed President Liamine Zeroual called early elections last September, observers wondered what the establishment had up its sleeve. Needless to say, they are no longer wondering.

Shortly after Zeroual’s promise of a free and fair election the military quickly pushed forward its “national consensus candidate,” Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Driving home the army’s seriousness, Tahar Behbaibeche, general secretary of the National Democratic Rally (RND), the senior partner in the ruling coalition, was ousted for publicly stating that party members were pressured by the generals to back Bouteflika. The leaders of five opposition parties came forward quickly and released a statement demanding “that pressures on political parties be lifted and that the president’s commitments on a fair poll be respected and the army be neutral.”

Few held out much hope for a free and fair contest or an end to the carnage that has claimed between 65,000 and 100,000 lives and resulted in the imprisonment of more than 150,000 persons. The reaction of the international community—in particular the West—could have had a positive impact had they cared about the elections in this North African cauldron of death and destruction.

Algeria’s 30 million people began their downward spiral into a vicious circle of violence in 1992, following the military’s cancellation of North Africa’s first experiment in multi-party democracy. This happened after the now-outlawed Islamist party, Front Islamique du Salut (FIS), had won the majority of 1991 municipal election contests and, a few months later, ran up sizable pluralities in the first stage of national elections. Rather than letting the FIS win, the military then cancelled the second-stage runoff elections and imposed emergency rule. The usual calls for democracy and human rights from the West, including Algeria’s old colonial master, France, were deathly muted.

Algerian blood flowed freely as the military battled Islamists and radical and moderate Islamists battled each other. The West’s hypocritical acquiescence and support—France reportedly has provided arms, funding, intelligence and diplomatic aid—for the hijackers of democracy has not gone unnoticed.

The military quickly pushed forward its “national consensus candidate.”

As one of the candidates, Hussein Ayet Ahmed, head of the Front des Forces Socialistes (FFS), noted recently, “37 years of monopoly on power and of refusing freedom of choice is enough.”

From the time the 1999 elections were called, the army’s open backing of Bouteflika raised concerns that the process was rigged. But Liamine Zeroual assured the nation that the process would be free and fair.

The subsequent open support of Bouteflika not only caused a rift within the main coalition party, it also brought about a split in the Islamist Al Nahda party, which in a surprising turn of events backed the army’s choice prior to the election. Al Nahda’s founder and now former leader, Abdallah Djaballah, disappointed with the Politburo’s decision, set up a new party to contest the elections until his withdrawal the day before the polls.

The largest legal Islamist party, the Movement for a Peaceful Society (MPS), which won three million votes and garnered 69 seats in the National Assembly in the 1995 elections, was also expected to make strong gains. Mahfoud Nahnah, head of the MPS, and the independent Islamist Ahmed Taleb Ibrahimi would also have been strong candidates for the presidency if the elections had proceeded fairly. Ibrahimi’s campaign coordinator was the former number three man in the FIS, and the mosques had been actively pushing his candidacy.

Nahnah was forced to pull out from the race after being disqualified a week before the vote by the Constitutional Council. After his disqualification, Nahnah initially threw his support behind the army’s candidate, reportedly to get back at the other opposition candidates who had not come to his aid at the Constitutional Council. Ibrahimi pulled out a day before the vote with the other five candidates to protest electoral fraud.

No Election Monitors

Human Rights Watch condemned the fact that no international election monitors had been authorized to observe the contest and that journalists were denied visas or restricted in their movements. State Department spokesperson James Rubin said that the U. S. was disappointed with the process, including the allegations of fraud.

“The elections in Algeria might have represented a clear step forward on the path to democracy and political reform,” Rubin said. “We are clearly disappointed by the events of recent days. We reiterate our view that the way for Algeria to end its long-running crisis is through the promotion of democracy, the rule of law and economic reform. The Algerian leadership now assumes a heavy responsibility to pursue credible reform.”

French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said that “We still hope that the Algerian people could achieve their democratic ambitions through multiplicity.” A former French prime minister, Pierre Morowa, said, “We feel sorry because President Zeroual did not cancel these elections. What happened is a severe blow to the hope born by the Algerian election campaign.”

The international community should have been more persistent in trying to push for a free, fair and transparent process. Though many, including Martin Indyk, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, had called on the government to invite international observers, not much was provided in terms of either carrots or sticks to persuade the authorities to accept international monitors.

A completely free and fair election—with moderate elements of FIS released from prison and allowed to participate—would have been the best step toward national reconciliation, true democracy and the best long-term strategy to bring an end to the vicious cycle of violence and put Algeria on the road to some semblance of civil society.

Such a contest would have provided an opportunity to moderate Islamists such as Djaballah, Nahnah and Ibrahimi to prove their democratic credentials.

For instance, Nahnah, whom I had the chance to meet personally during his speaking engagement in Toronto last summer, advocates “shuracracy.” According to Nahnah, who served as chair of Tafsir (exegeses of the Qur’an) at the University of Algeria, this “catholic marriage,” wherein divorce is impossible, between shura (loosely translated as the Islamic concept of consultative government) and democracy is the only solution that can attack the root of the crisis between secular Westernized elites and the growing mass of people wishing to go back to their Islamic heritage.

The most positive turn of events would be the beginning of the end of the senseless violence. Though both sides have been accusing the other of carrying out the massacres, many are now rightfully calling for an end to the finger-pointing and a focus on national reconciliation. As Nahnah noted in Toronto, regardless of who is behind the killing, at the end of the day Algerians are killing Algerians and leaving behind a generation of orphans and psychologically disturbed children. Fortunately, the violence has decreased with the first real signs of communication between the Islamists and the establishment.

Extremists on both sides will persist. But radicalization of the Islamic movement can only be halted by allowing mainstream Islamists the opportunity to present their case. Far too many Islamic movements have developed radical splinter groups opting for the bullet after being denied the ballot box. The best way to combat extremism is to allow peaceful expression of competing world views. This goes doubly for Algeria.

Faisal Kutty is a Toronto-based lawyer and free-lance writer. He can be reached via e-mail at fkutty@law.com