Algeria voted yesterday in an election the ruling elite says will set the country, left behind by the “Arab Spring”, on the road to real democracy, but people showed their scepticism by abstaining in large numbers.
Last year’s upheavals in the region have created pressure for reform and a renewal of the ageing establishment that has ruled without interruption since independence from France half a century ago.The authorities have responded by promising an “Algerian Spring” – a managed process of reform they offer as a counterpoint to the upheavals elsewhere.
Many Algerians, however, see elections as futile because real power, they say, lies with an informal network commonly known by the French term le pouvoir, or “the power”, and has its roots in the security forces.
Reporters in the capital, Algiers, in fishing villages on the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and in the Kabylie mountains to the east, said only a trickle of people were going into polling stations. The election is likely to give the biggest share of seats in parliament for the first time in Algeria’s history to moderate Islamists, mirroring the trend in countries such as Egypt and Tunisia.
“The young people will make an Algerian Spring in this election,” said Bouguera Soltani, whose mildly Islamist “Green Alliance” coalition is tipped to become the dominant force in the new parliament.
– (Reuters)