The oldest opposition party in Algeria has denounced the “administrative war waged by the authority against the parties that don’t agree with the army's suggestion to organize elections as soon as possible.”
This followed the government’s refusal to authorize a meeting of the coalition of opposition parties, scheduled for August 31, without providing any reason for its decision.
The “de facto authority wants to impose its agenda to resolve the crisis,” the Socialist Forces Front said in a statement on Wednesday, noting that this means organizing elections at all costs.
The Socialist Forces Front is one of the opposition parties in the coalition, which also includes the Islamic Justice and Development Front, the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) and the left-wing Labor Party and the Democratic and Social Movement.
The alliance affirmed that it would again submit a request to the state authorities to authorize the meeting to be held on September 9.
The authority doesn’t usually justify its decision to cancel meetings of a political nature in public spaces.
The opposition has been suffering from this issue since Abdelaziz Bouteflika's 20-year rule. However, since the revolution, which began on February 22, the authorities have relatively abandoned their stringent position in this regard.
This has allowed the opposition to organize intensive activities as part of a general effort to seek a solution to the country’s “governance legitimacy” crisis, which has arisen after Bouteflika decided to run for a fifth term despite his physical incapability.
A leader in a youth opposition group confirmed that Bejaia state has refused to authorize an event, scheduled Wednesday (yesterday).
In a press statement, he explained that the group’s activists will organize a demonstration in front of the state headquarters to protest this abuse, pointing out that the laws and the constitution “guarantee the right of assembly and demonstration.”
The banning of the opposition and its close associations comes in line with the repeated attacks by Army Chief of staff Lt. Gen. Ahmed Gaed Salah against parties and figures that reject his plan to hold presidential elections before the end of 2019.
