The North Africa Journal – January 9, 2019: The uncertainty over the presidential election in Algeria has created new divisions within the military ranks, with current leaders, siding with the president, who is being politically attacked by retired officers. The latter are calling for transparency and fairness in the world of politics, and at least one of them declared his intention to compete for the post of president.
Among those loyal to President Bouteflika is Army General Ahmed Gaid Salah, who warned all retired generals to desist from speaking on behalf of the military on political issues. General Gaid Salah said “certain individuals and parties, driven by excessive ambitions and devious intentions, are attempting to prejudge, without veracity, the positions of the military institution vis-à-vis the presidential elections. They arrogate even the right to speak on his behalf by all means, including media.” For the Chief of Staff and Deputy Minister of National Defense, the people who speak on behalf of the military (Armee Nationale Populaire or ANP) are motivated by “personal interests and excessive ambitions”.
One of the targeted retired generals in the Gaid Salah speech is Major General Ali Ghediri, who before announcing that he would run for president, he joined the Mouwatana movement to call for President Bouteflika not to run for a fifth term, and to organize transparent and fair elections. The “Mouwatana movement is made up of independent personalities who oppose the current regime, but come from various political circles. Some see in the candidacy of General Ghediri a strategy by the friends and supporters of the former head of DRS intelligence service, General Toufik to regain control over Algerian political life. Toufik was ousted by President Bouteflika, who received the support of the Ministry of Defense in removing the powerful DRS.
In one of his speeches, Ali Ghediri spoke directly to army chief, Gaid Salah, appealing to him to prevent rigged elections, and warning “Gaid Salah is not without knowing that he is the last of his generation and that History is very attentive to what he does or will do (…)”.
Replying Ali Ghediri, without naming him, Gaid Salah adds: “Losing the sense of the measure, these individuals engage in a business that is not theirs, and launch themselves, without any scruple. in unbridled fabrications, stemming from a sick narcissism, which pushes them to claim to know well the High Command of the National People’s Army, to predict its position vis-à-vis the presidential elections; serious drift which denotes a worrying threshold of unconsciousness that only blind ambition can provoke “.
