Algerian Tebboune appoints interior minister as campaign leader

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has temporarily removed Interior Minister Brahim Merad from office to oversee his re-election campaign, sparking controversy among opposition parties, who see the move as a blow to the credibility of September’s presidential election.

“Mr. Brahim Merad, Minister of the Interior, Local Government and Urban Development, is being sent on extraordinary leave from August 14, 2024 to September 4, 2024 for the electoral campaign for the 2024 presidential elections,” the official Algerian bulletin wrote on August 7.

The decree states that another official will take over Merad’s duties at the Interior Ministry, but no further details are given.

Merad is expected to resume his ministerial role on September 4, the day the election campaign ends – three days before the general vote begins in Algeria and just one day before voting begins for the Algerian diaspora abroad. In Algeria, the Ministry of the Interior plays a key role in organizing and securing the voting process.

Earlier this week, Tebboune announced that Merad has been appointed campaign manager for his candidacy for a second term in the Mouradia Palace.

Opposition parties, already shocked by the circumstances surrounding the election, have branded Tebboune’s decision as “provocative”.

“The appointment of the Minister of the Interior as campaign manager for the head of state represents a loss of credibility (…) It is provocative,” the Rassemblement pour l’Etude de la Culture et de Democratie (RCD) said in a press release.

The RCD boycotted the presidential elections, claiming that there were no “democratic conditions”.

On July 15, the Labor Party, another major opposition group, withdrew from the race, condemning an “electoral process that does not guarantee full freedom and denies citizens the right to choose freely.”

Other opposition parties have since withdrawn from the race, frustrated by what they describe as a “slow and inefficient” administrative process involving a complicated collection of signatures and statements of support.

Two candidates are currently running against Tebboune: Abdelkader Hassan, leader of the Islamist Movement for a Society of Peace, and Youssef Aouchiche, first secretary of the Front of Socialist Forces (FFS).

For the first time since 1999, the pro-Amazigh party FFS has decided to participate in the presidential elections, after adopting a “more pragmatic and tactical” stance under its current leadership.

In March, Algiers announced early presidential elections for September 7. The date was brought forward by three months, without giving a reason.

This date change has unsettled the opposition and made it difficult to collect signatures and statements of support. There was speculation that Tebboune wanted to surprise his opponents with his move and secure an easy victory.

Freedoms under Tebboune’s rule

The September elections will be the first since Tebboune, the 78-year-old military-backed leader, came to power in 2019. He emerged victorious in a low-turnout election sparked by the Hirak movement, the mass peaceful protests that ousted four-term President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in 2019.

Activists boycotted the vote at the time, demanding broader reform of the political system, or what they called the “mafia”: politicians and businessmen who profited from Bouteflika’s regime and suppressed dissent.

After his victory, Tebboune promised to engage with the protesters and tackle the corruption they were protesting against.

However, during his first term, Tebboune, once Bouteflika’s prime minister, banned all protests and increased sentences for activists, journalists and bloggers. He used a broad anti-terrorism decree to jail more than 200 people simply for criticizing his rule.

“Today we live in a worse era than during Bouteflika (…) Fear is now stronger than the opposition in Algeria. The state has succeeded in terrorizing the people,” said Zaki Hannache, the Hirak icon now living in exile. The New Arab in an interview in 2022.