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The Aftermath of Algeria’s First Free Local Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Belkacem Iratni  and
Mohand Salah Tahi
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Extract

THERE ARE SOME DATES AND EVENTS WHICH REMAIN engraved in the collective memory of a people. In Algeria these are: 1 November 1954, which sparked the eight-year long War of Liberation; 5 July 1962, which witnessed the end of French rule over the country after 130 years of colonial settlement; and 12 June 1990, which signalled the withering away of the monopoly of power exercised by the ruling party - the National Liberation Front (FLN) - following the holding of the first ever free and competitive local elections in the history of independent Algeria. No doubt, on 12 June 1990 the Constitution of 23 February 1989, which fundamentally transformed the political and social system of Algeria, achieved its most spectacular application. These elections aimed at the renewal of seats in the Councils of both APC: Assemblées Populaires Communales (constituencies), and APW: Assemblées Populaires de Wilayat (provinces). For the first time, Algerians were offered the freedom to choose their representatives from among lists of candidates sponsored by several newly-legalized parties alongside the FLN, and for the first time, the FLN tasted defeat.

Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , 01 October 1991 , pp. 466 - 479
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1991

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References

1 The FFS was formed in September 1963 to oppose what it saw as Ben Bella’s inclination towards personal rule. It led an armed resistance mainly in the Kabylia region until its troops were disbanded by the regular forces – under the command of Colonel Houari Boumedienne. Its leader, Hocine Ait Ahmed, was arrested in 1964 and condemned to death (commuted to life imprisonment). On 16 June 1965, shortly before Ben Bella was toppled from power, an agreement was signed by which the FFS was to be granted legal recognition. The coup of 19 June 1965 reversed this process, and Ait Ahmed remained in prison until he escaped on 1 May 1966, and fled abroad. There he led a sporadic opposition to Boumedienne and then Chadli but made no significant impact. He returned to Algeria on 15 December 1989, after a 23-year exile, following the legalization of his party.

2 Created by Ben Bella in exile, in May 1984, the MDA came to fame after it was responsible for a series of subversive activities in Algeria and for anti-Chadli propaganda within Algerian migrant circles in France and Spain.

3 Interview with Said Saadi by A. Haireche and B. Iratni, Algiers, 25 July 1990.

4 For Abbassi’s biography, see LeMonde, 14 June 1990, p. 3, and his interview in jeune Afrique, No. 1543, 25 July-1 August 1990.

5 Interview with Abbassi Madani by A. Haireche and B. Iratni, Algiers, 25 July 1990.

6 See Interview with N. Boukrouh in Algerie Actualité, No. 1282, 10–16 May 1990, pp. 14–15.

7 See H. Ait Ahmed, ‘Non à la Mascarade Electorale. Oui à l’Election d’une Assemblée Constituante’, in Libré Algéria, April 1990, p. 3.

8 Interview with A. Ben Bella in Le Monde, 31 May 1990, p. 7.

9 Marchés Tropicaux, 20 July 1990, p. 2177.

10 El Watan, 28 March 1991, p. 24.

11 Algérit Actualité, No. 1338, 6–12 June 1991, p. 7.

12 El Badil, January 1991, pp. 6–7.

13 ibid.

14 Algérie Actualité, No. 1319, 24–30 January 1991, p. 14.

15 Horizons, 24 July 1990, p. 2.

16 Horizons, 20 June 1990, p. 3.

17 ibid., pp. 2–3.

18 Forum for Democracy’

19 Democrats ‘Conference’.

20 Autonomous Democratic Forum’

21 The two authors are currently preparing a book entitled: Algeria’s Form of Perestroika: Internal Dynamics and Political Challenges.