h2>Following on from success in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia
(by Diego Minuti) (ANSAmed) – TUNISI, 9 MAR – Beyond the issues being heatedly debated during this very lengthy election campaign leading to a general election on May 15, there is a growing awareness in Algeria that the religious parties that have been doing so well in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco, will find little in the way of their onward march here. Defined by President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika as decisive for the country’s future, following the introduction of free political parties, the elections now appear to hinge on the role of the sectarian movements. There are five of these in Algeria, and they do not always see eye to eye.
Indeed, the newly formed Green Alliance, which gathers together the Movement of the Society for Peace, Ennahdha and El Islah, has not reached out to embrace the other two parties close to Islam: the Front for National Liberation and the Rassemblement National Democratique. And so if, just a hours after the ceremony to seal the accord, the Green Alliance may consider itself the uncrowned winners of the election, an alliance of five would have been even more of a sure-fire bet. But the Alliance may not have everything its own way, as the two other Islamic parties, whose leaders Abdallah Djaballah and Abdelmadjid Menasra – both who have been raised in a tough school – are ready to do battle, even at the expense of striking the flag of Islam that now flies over the elections. The green wave that began in Tunisia has now swept through Morocco and Egypt and may be about to engulf Algeria, where impatience with the governing majority is growing through popular protest on a daily basis.
Demonstrations may be violent and be repressed just as violently. They have deep roots in the so-called ‘hogra’, as the now ebbing relationship – in all its forms – between the common people and those in power is called. The ‘hogra’ is the public official who keeps you waiting for months for that licence you need; hogra is the police officer who seizes the poor wares of a street trader; ‘hogra’ is seeing others jump the queue in front of you for the right to a council flat; ‘hogra’ is seeing the affluent lifestyles of those who have their hands on the reins of political and economic power in the country while poverty remains as chronic as ever, despite the ample royalties being earned from oil and gas exports, that make Algeria a rich nation. This deep-seated rage is one of the themes that the religious parties have made their own, and they are basically the same bunch who delivered victory to the Islamists in Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt. The feeling is that the victory of the religious parties has nothing, or little, to do with religion: it is just an easy bet once you establish yourself as the answer to the causes of popular anger, offering the “true and just” solution, because it has been inspired by Islam, by the Koran and, tomorrow perhaps, by Sharia. (ANSAmed).
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