Algeria: Muslim Brotherhood parties compete for election lead
Tight race in parliamentary election scheduled for Saturday
Abu Dhabi: The competition for the majority in the Algerian parliamentary elections scheduled for Saturday is intensifying between two parties of the Muslim Brotherhood.
One of the sides supports the team that succeeded President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in power, and the second is in opposition, with ministers in several governments since the 1990s.
The head of the National Building Movement, Abdelkader bin Qurainah, made exciting statements in the legislative elections campaign, which ends Tuesday, stating that “a referendum for opinion within the party gave us first place in the elections.”
During rallies attended by a large number of party supporters and political Islam, he stressed that his party would “overwhelm the new National People’s Assembly” (the first parliamentary chamber). But he stressed that he is “ascetic” in leading the government that will emerge from the elections.
Bin Qurainah, a former minister, explained at an election festival in the capital, on Saturday that “the goal of the movement after the June 12 elections is to form a coalition government in which all the honest forces participate, through which the aspirations of the Algerian people are embodied.”
Bin Qurainah said he wants a government team that “reflects the various political forces and national elites without exclusion, within the framework of a new approach that establishes a political government for a period of no less than five years, which will undertake a national rescue programme that contributes to overcoming the multifaceted crisis in which the country is floundering.”
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said in an interview published by the French magazine “Le Point”, last Thursday, that “political Islam was not an obstacle to development in countries such as Tunisia, Turkey or Egypt. Such a model of political Islam does not bother me because it does not rise above the laws of the republic that will be strictly enforced.”
A prominent leader in the Society for Peace, Nasser Hamaddouche told Asharq Al Awsat that “every party that respects itself, knows its size, realizes its strength and reads its reality, aspires to win in any elections, especially when there is a general tendency to respect the will of the voters.”
He added: “It is true that there may not be an absolute majority for any political party, we are certain that we will will take the lead with a strong parliamentary bloc that is heading towards national consensus and the leadership of a government of national unity in coordination and cooperation with the President of the Republic.