Samedi 19 avril 2014
Despite a
win for Bouteflika in the Algerian presidential elections there are still signs
that there is a broad push for reform in the country.
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Abdelaziz
Bouteflika now confirmed as Algeria's President and will begin to serve his
fourth term.
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With
Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s clear electoral victory – albeit amidst fraud
allegations from his chief opponent – the aging president is set to serve his
fourth term.
His
supporters celebrated late into the night on Friday, after official preliminary
results giving Bouteflika 81 percent of the votes.
Yet there
are also signs that there is a broad push for reform in Algeria. Not only did
the fierce debate surrounding the re-election of the wheelchair-bound
president, who suffered a major stroke in April 2013 provoke the usual
protests, it also brought serious dissent within the ruling elite itself out
into the open in an unprecedented way.
Bouhedja
Said, a member of the political bureau and head of communication for the ruling
National Liberation Front (FLN), told MEE that the “crushing majority”
represented a victory for the proponents of stability.
“It is a
victory for the Moujahid Bouteflika. He is a symbol,” the FLN spokesperson
said, referring to Bouteflika’s role in Algeria’s War of Independence. “I think
these results are a success for the Algerian people. It shows support for
continuity.”
Bouteflika’s
critics, however, see the symbolism of the re-election of an incapacitated man
as head of state in a very different light: as proof that the small group of
men who have monopolized power for more than half a century are determined to
cling to power until they die.
After a wave
of protests in early 2011, in the context of the wider so-called Arab Spring,
Bouteflika promised reforms to allow for greater political freedoms. Yet the
crackdown on anti-Bouteflika protesters and media, and the lack of genuine
competition in the presidential election suggests that little has changed.
Many
opposition parties called for voters to boycott, and the official participation
rate in the election of 51 percent is widely believed to be considerably lower.
During the
campaign, Bouteflika’s team reaffirmed that the reforms promised back in 2011
will be delivered if their man was re-elected. They even mentioned the
possibility of a second republic.
“Certainly,
he will change the constitution,” Bouhedja Said agreed. “Much work is needed to
broaden democracy, to give more space to the opposition.”
Many in the
opposition, however, want to be more involved in any reform process.
Ahead of the
election, the Socialist Forces Front (FFS), the country’s oldest opposition
party, called for a wide-reaching conference to create a roadmap of consensus
for a genuine democratic transition to pull the country through what it
described as the “national crisis”.
Karim
Baloul, a senior figure in the FFS, said that many political actors are talking
about consensus and some form of transition, and that they hoped this would
lead to sincere change.
“It is going
to be a very long task,” he said.
The party
wants a much wider process rather than the FLN-led initiative dating from 2011,
he said: “That was just make believe”.
Ali Benflis,
a member of the FLN who was the lead contender to Bouteflika, told MEE on Thursday that he supports a
consensus process, a new constitution and an end to the ban on protests.
Civil
society groups are also pushing for more substantive change, with a collective
of Algerian NGOs, including the Algerian Human Rights League, SOS-Disappeared,
the National Autonomous Students’ Union, the Youth Action Collective (RAJ),
along with several others, issuing a joint statement on Saturday announcing a
meeting next Saturday to begin wider dialogue. “Pseudo dialogue, false
reforms and sham elections cannot produce the change Algerians yearn for; the
impasse and political crisis have only become deeper,” their statement said.
The most
significant challenge to the closed nature of the political system came with
the October 1988 uprising. After a brief period of genuine pluralism and
freedoms, the door to democracy was slammed shut with the 1992 coup d’état. A
decade-long civil war followed.
Ever since
1991, Algerians have been given the choice: stability and the status quo, or
the terrifying alternative. Change has become synonymous with terror.
A repeat of
the 1988 scenario appears unlikely, but there are growing fears that a failure
of the ruling elite to provide a genuine, gradual transition will lead to
disaster.
Amel
Boubekeur, a specialist in Maghreb politics and a non-resident fellow at the
German Institute for International and Security Affairs Berlin, said that the
official statistics did not amount to support for the status quo.
“People
didn’t vote for Bouteflika for ideological reasons. They’re voting not to give
up their privileges,” she said. “[Bouteflika supporters] are the ones talking
about stability, not the Algerian people.”
Despite the
alternative initiatives coming from opposition parties for more comprehensive
reform, the very structure of the Algerian political system, she said, meant it
is unlikely any of these will gain traction.
Algerian
civil society, intellectuals and opposition political parties are simply not
strong enough, she said, and the international community seems unlikely to
question Bouteflika’s election score.
“Unfortunately,
the reaction of the international community yesterday, made me think that they
have not gone beyond their double-standards when it comes to the Arab world,”
she said.
For now, it
appears any change in Algeria will be closely managed by the ruling FLN.
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