This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/world/africa/algeria-elections-canceled.html

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Algeria Cancels Presidential Election, in Potentially New Political Crisis Algeria Cancels Presidential Election, Setting Up New Impasse
(about 7 hours later)
ALGIERS, Algeria — Algeria’s Constitutional Council on Sunday canceled presidential elections that had been scheduled for July 4 after rejecting the only two candidates, stalling the transition into a new government after weeks of protests calling for change. CAEN, France — Algeria’s Constitutional Council on Sunday canceled elections planned for next month, acceding to demands from protesters who since February have upended the country’s politics.
The announcement on television comes two months after the longtime leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika stepped down under pressure from the public and the powerful army chief. The council in the North African country said in a statement that it was now up to the interim president, Abdelkader Bensalah, to set a new date for the vote. The council, a semi-independent body operating in the shadow of the country’s all-powerful military, gave no reason for canceling the July 4 vote in its official statement. But the decision was not unexpected: For weeks, the protesters who have filled the streets of Algiers and other cities have been demanding nothing less.
Only two candidates, both unknowns, had turned in their files by the May 25 deadline, but the Constitutional Council rejected them. It did not say why. The protesters deemed the planned elections illegitimate because they were engineered by the army and by politicians put in place by Algeria’s ousted leader, Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Presidential elections were ordered after the ailing Mr. Bouteflika stepped down on April 2 after weeks of nationwide protests in the streets to end his two-decade rule. On Friday, demonstrators took to the streets for a 15th straight week.
The cancellation of elections will most likely extend the rule of Mr. Bensalah, who was meant to stay on until the vote to elect a new president. The elections were intended to fill the slot left vacant by Mr. Bouteflika’s forced resignation on April 2. But no serious candidates had presented themselves — and above all no candidates accepted by the Algerian street.
Algerians have continued to hold weekly pro-democracy protests since Feb. 22 to press for a new era with new leadership that has no links to Mr. Bouteflika. On Friday, hundreds of thousands again took to the streets of Algiers and other cities to call for Mr. Bensalah’s removal and that of Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui, who was appointed by Mr. Bouteflika before he stepped down. The government ministers installed by the departing Mr. Bouteflika have so little credibility that they are often chased back into their cars by protesters when they try to make official visits.
The developments came a week after the country’s army chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Gaed Salah, who has been managing the transition, said on state television on Monday that elections were the best way to overcome Algeria’s political crisis and avoid a constitutional vacuum. On Sunday, the country appeared to be at yet another impasse, with protesters and the army once again facing off and no immediate solution in sight.
He had also urged speeding up the formation of a committee to supervise the election, without mentioning a date for the vote. He has also called on political parties and protesters to meet among themselves to discuss a way out of the crisis. Algeria’s political leaders are discredited. Its military hierarchy, too, has been rejected by protesters clamoring for a complete break with the old army-dominated system of governance. And now there is no election scheduled.
Analysts say the army, a major player in the oil-and-gas-producing country, is concerned about the crisis continuing at a time when instability is worsening in neighboring Libya, where rival forces are fighting over the capital, Tripoli. The Constitutional Council’s decision was merely a recognition of reality, analysts say: The protesters had already rejected the planned vote, and the army evidently decided not to impose one.
“It’s significant,” said Hasni Abidi, a Swiss-Algerian political scientist at the Global Studies Institute of Geneva University. “The decision makers were faced with an impasse. It had become an election that made no sense. At the same time, the army needed a reason not to lose face.”
Hence the decision Sunday by the council, operating under the sway of the all-powerful army chief of staff, Ahmed Gaïd Salah.
Still, the interim president rejected by the street and installed with Mr. Bouteflika’s blessing, Abdelkader Bensalah, remains in power. And Mr. Gaïd Salah is still pulling the strings.
“What’s happened today is a victory for the people of Algeria, but it’s a victory with risk,” Mr. Abidi said.
Abdelouahab Fersaoui, head of a leading civil society group, the Youth-Action Union, said: “It’s an important victory, but it’s not definitive. Because those holding power are going to continue to impose their road map, with yet another postponement of elections, with the same machinery of this system rejected by the people.”
Algeria’s political opposition is divided and disputatious, with no single party or personality having emerged to lead the protest movement. But some — human rights lawyers and a handful of political figures outside the circles of power — who have historically spoken out against the governing authorities still have legitimacy with the movement.
“The people need to speak through a national conference, which could organize an electoral commission to prepare for clean, transparent elections,” said Fatiha Benabbou, a leading Algerian constitutional scholar.
Still, Sunday’s decision by the council represented another victory for the opposition, one in a succession that began months ago when demonstrators in the hitherto politically dormant North African nation, an important oil and gas exporter, demanded an end to the regime of the ailing Mr. Bouteflika.
Mr. Bouteflika at first agreed not to seek another term, then canceled elections. Finally he was forced to step down under pressure from Mr. Gaïd Salah.
Since then Algeria’s justice system has gone after Mr. Bouteflika’s brother Saïd and other members of the Bouteflika entourage, as well as leading businessmen who are accused of corruption.