Head of the Justice and Development Front, Abdallah Djaballah kicked off on Tuesday a series of meetings with Algerian opposition leaders in order to field a single candidate in the upcoming presidential elections.
The meetings were kicked off as political parties that support President Abdulaziz Bouteflika geared up to hold a large rally on February 9 ahead of his announcement to run for reelection for a fifth term.
Djaballah said that he would not run in the polls, but would hold talks with “serious” opposition figures and leaders, including candidates Dr. Abderrazak Makri, of the Movement for the Society of Peace, former Prime Minister Ali Benflis and retired general Ali Ghediri.
Djaballah told Asharq Al-Awsat that his supporters had urged him to run in the elections, “but I refused and they then called on me to contact the serious opposition figures to agree on a single candidate who would represent us” in the April 18 elections.
Observers believe that Djaballah will fail in his efforts given the major difference between Ghediri, an advocate of secular rule in Algeria, and Makri, an Islamist. Benflis is also at odds with the two candidates on a number of issues.
Djaballah had twice run for the presidency.
In 1999, he and five other candidates withdrew from the race on the eve of the vote in protest against the “military’s blatant bias towards Bouteflika,” who was also a candidate. In 2009, Djaballah was defeated in the elections by Bouteflika. He later accused him of forging the vote results.
Meanwhile, Ghediri’s electoral campaign has been mired by harassment, revealed his campaign manager Muqrin Ait al-Arabi.
He stressed that these practices will not stop him from gathering the necessary signatures to submit his candidacy and run for president.
He accused a government power of standing behind these “oppressive” tactics, urging the interior minister to assume his responsibilities in stopping them.
Any hopeful seeking to run for president must collect 60,000 signatures to be eligible to submit their candidacy.
