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WORLD NEWS Monday 11 February 2019

As Algerian leader ails, would-be challengers eye election

By AOMAR OUALI worry about a political fallen very low. When hold-
Associated Press earthquake in Africa's larg- ers of dirty money buy par-
ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — A est country by land mass, liament seats with billions,
record number of people home to 42 million people when people implicated in
want to run for president of and an al-Qaida affiliate legal scandals find them-
Algeria in the country's April that has targeted foreign- selves in visible political
election, amid growing un- ers in the past. posts, when people with
certainty about whether in- Among Bouteflika's top no intellectual experi-
cumbent Abdelaziz Boute- challengers are former ence and no political con-
flika, who said Sunday he Prime Minister Ali Benflis, science want to become
plans to seek a fifth term the runner-up in 2014 and president, minister, senator
despite being infirm since a today's main opposition — then you shouldn't be
2013 stroke, is fit enough af- candidate; influential re- surprised to see today this
ter two decades in charge tired Gen. Ali Ghediri; and type of candidate," he told
of this gas-rich North Afri- the leader of a moderate The Associated Press.
can nation. Islamist party, Abderazak Corruption has long eat-
In the two weeks since Makri. en away at public trust in
the electoral process was The heads of several small Algeria, from its opaque
launched, 186 people have political parties from across energy sector to the high-
requested the documents the spectrum are also hop- est levels of politics. Dirty
needed to declare their ing to run — along with money scandals surround-
candidacy. That's more many Algerians who don't ed the 2017 parliamentary
than double the number of have the slightest links to election, with the son of the
potential candidates at this politics. governing party leader sus-
stage in the last presiden- Would-be candidate Salah pected of taking bribes in
tial election, in 2014. Kemmach wants to run exchange for spots on the
Most will never get the sig- because he was born the party's candidate list. In this May 4, 2017, file photo, Algerian President Abdelaziz
natures necessary to for- day that former President Other parties said they Bouteflika prepares to vote in Algiers.
mally get on the April 18 Houari Boumediene died in were approached by Associated Press
ballot. But the range of 1978. people offering to drum
candidates suggests wide "For me, it's a sign of des- up signatures for potential years of violence. and its struggling economy
frustration with the status tiny" he says in a video get- candidates in exchange Algeria also still struggles is heavily dependent on
quo. ting attention on social me- for cash. with sporadic extremism volatile world oil prices.q
Bouteflika, 82, announced dia. "I decided to take my To get on the ballot, can-
via Algeria's official APS responsibility to continue didates must gather 60,000
news agency Sunday that (Boumediene's) project, signatures of citizens or
he plans to seek a further abandoned by those who 6,000 signatures of elected
five-year term. Yet his fit- succeeded him." officials, spread out over 25
ness for office was already Another candidate, a for- of Algeria's 48 administra-
a question in the 2014 elec- mer street cleaner from the tive departments.
tion, coming a year after western city of Oran, says Bouteflika won the 2014
a stroke left him speaking he wants to be president election with 81 percent of
and moving with difficulty "to eat steak." the vote despite not even
and largely confined to a While some dismiss the appearing in his own cam-
wheelchair. wannabe presidents as paign. He is appreciated
He has only been seen in nothing more than carni- for helping reconcile the
public a few times a year val jesters, political science country after a devastat-
throughout his entire fourth professor Mohamed Lag- ing civil war in the 1990s
term — yet many Algerians gab of Algiers University between Islamic insurgents
would likely vote for Boute- says the huge number of and the military that left
flika again, for fear of the potential candidates is a around 200,000 people
instability that his departure sign of degradation in Al- dead.
could unleash. gerian politics. But the country and its peo-
Algeria's Western allies also "Political practices have ple remain scarred by the