Representatives of the Muslim community at the basilica of Saint-Augustin in Annaba. AFP PHOTO / FAROUK BATICHE
In the final hours before Algeria’s presidential election kicks off Thursday, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika urged Algerians to vote and ignore the call for a mass boycott made by his primary opponent Ali Benflis, who ran against the Algerian leader in 2004.
That Bouteflika, who has been largely invisible in recent months due to his ailing health following a stroke last April, made the rare appeal (albeit via a statement distributed to national media) speaks to the tensions dominating this election. Domestic rumblings have been sparked in large part by questions over Bouteflika’s capacity to govern, as well as by expectations of election fraud fostered by the president’s performance in 2009, when he emerged with 90% of the vote. Benflis in particular has been playing up worries of election rigging, warning this week that an “army” of his supporters will be in place to monitor Thursday’s election.
For all the noise, Bouteflika’s victory remains a foregone conclusion. Not that his fourth term will unfold smoothly. Violent protests have cut short support rallies for the Algerian president, most recently on Wednesday. A rare grassroots youth movement, called Barakat or “enough” in Arabic, which emerged two months ago to oppose Bouteflika’s presidential bid, is echoing Benflis’ call for a boycott. (The opposition leader has a strong following among young voters.) Even Algeria’s historically tight-knit and tight-lipped ruling elite is split over Bouteflika’s candidacy, and riven by public spats. More troubling still for the incumbent is the resurgence of Algeria’s domestic opposition, buoyed by expectations of low voter turnout. Opposition to the ailing president’s bid is such that even ideological rivals are building alliances, notably the Movement for the Society of Peace (MSP) — the Algerian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood — which has joined forces with the secularist Rally for Culture and Democracy to urge a boycott.
VISUAL CONTEXT: Unemployment in the region
Source: NYSSA.org
True, the nation’s budding protest movement could fizzle out, handicapped by a inchoate opposition united by little but hostility to Bouteflika. But analysts warn that economic stagnation is looming, thanks to dwindling state reserves and climbing unemployment. The probability of growing economic frustration — a major factor behind 2011’s popular revolt in neighboring Tunisia — compounded by a populace increasingly disconnected from an administration that dates from Algeria’s 1962 war of independence (80% of Algeria’s 37 million people are under the age of 45) hints that a more sustained movement is on the horizon, as is a tangible threat to the political inertia that characterizes Bouteflika’s previous terms. Though an Arab Spring-style uprising remains a distant hypothetical, Barakat may prove to be just the beginning.
