The North Africa Journal – August 16, 2018 – By Hakim Briki: Mouwatana, a movement created in June 2018 to dissuade President Bouteflika from running for reelection, has denounced the “early presidential campaign” launched by majority parties. This comes a few days after the Secretary-General of the ruling FLN party admitted that he was campaigning for a fifth Bouteflika term. The movement said that the so-called campaign is “a clear violation of republican laws”, and that it raises many issues on the ethical front, due to the “illegal and abusive use of state employees and facilities”. In its most controversial statement yet, the movement alluded to the President and the regime when it declared “The Algerian people have the right to refuse being humiliated by a clique that is behind a creeping coup d’etat, and which is holding hostage a man who betrayed the constitutional oath by taking advantage of the general abdication of institutions involved in keeping the regime in place”.
A few days after issuing the communiqué, a dozen members of the movement were prevented from holding a protest in central Algiers. The leader of the opposition party Jil Jadid, Soufiane Djilali, journalist and author Saad Bouakba, the President of the Union for Change and Progress (UPC) Zoubida Assoul, lawyer Abdelghani Badi and civil society represenatives were arrested by the police for questioning. The Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH) denounced the intervention of the security forces, and warned against the use of the security forces to “undermine freedoms”. The party of the opposition figure Ali Benflis, Talaiou al-Hurriat, lashed out at the government for “imposing a status quo, against the will and aspiration for change of the Algerian people”.
Mouwatana movement is expected to gain momentum in the next few months. Seen as a nuisance by the regime, Mouwatana is planning a series of protests before the presidential election. The possible announcement of a Bouteflika candidacy for 2019 will trigger a relentless reaction from the movement, as was the case with “Barakat”, another campaign started by activists in 2014 to hinder the Bouteflika campaign.
