Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07ALGIERS618
2007-05-03 09:28:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Algiers
Cable title:  

THE RISE OF THE FLN OLD GUARD AND FALL OF

Tags:  PGOV PHUM KDEM AG 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXYZ0008
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAS #0618/01 1230928
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 030928Z MAY 07
FM AMEMBASSY ALGIERS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3549
INFO RUEHBP/AMEMBASSY BAMAKO 0154
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1590
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 8544
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 2162
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT 1742
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS 6576
RUEHCL/AMCONSUL CASABLANCA 2946
C O N F I D E N T I A L ALGIERS 000618 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/02/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM AG
SUBJECT: THE RISE OF THE FLN OLD GUARD AND FALL OF
INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES


Classified By: Ambassador Robert S. Ford; reasons 1.4 (b, d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L ALGIERS 000618

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/02/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM AG
SUBJECT: THE RISE OF THE FLN OLD GUARD AND FALL OF
INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES


Classified By: Ambassador Robert S. Ford; reasons 1.4 (b, d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: The old guard of the ruling National
Liberation Front (FLN),based on a report from a well
respected parliamentarian, overruled local FLN officials and
stacked FLN party lists with their friends and associates in
advance of the May 17 legislative elections. One result is
that only a handful of women appear on the FLN ballot
nationwide. The MP also reported that Parliament President
Saadani stood up for the "modernist" MPs and the integrity of
the FLN selection process, only to lose his own post and
place on the FLN ballot. Over half of FLN activists,
according to our source, will invalidate their ballots, not
vote, or vote for another party in protest of the FLN
leadership's actions. Interestingly, FLN leader Belkheddam
has issued instructions to his rank and file not to meet with
the American embassy. Meanwhile, both our discreet FLN
source and a respected RND parliamentarian said there would
be no independent candidates on the ballot in Algiers this
year. Petitions for all such candidates were invalidated,
they claim, and most independent candidates appearing on the
ballot will hail from the sparsely populated south. The
sense of manipulation behind the scenes on behalf of the
political establishment reminds of Algeria in the 1970s and
1980s and contributes to the dearth of public interest in the
elections. This perception in turn makes it less likely that
the May 17 legislative elections will mark a step forward in
the democratic evolution in Algeria. End Summary.

THE FLN OLD GUARD ASSERTS ITSELF
--------------


2. (C) According to an FLN MP, Parliamentary President and
FLN stalwart Amar Saadani stood up to the party old guard
(largely FLN ministers who direct the party along with PM
Belkheddam during the compilation of FLN party lists for the
May 17 elections. In return, as punishment the old guard did
not allow Saadani to run for re-election. Breaking with the
rest of the FLN, which under instruction from Belkheddam has
not met with us since February, MP Benour Sabah (strictly
protect) agreed to meet PolEc Chief April 29. She said

meeting with the Embassy entailed some personal risk, but
informing us that democracy in Algeria was being hijacked was
more important. Despite her very high qualifying scores in
the FLN primary process, based on her work in parliament, she
reported that Belkheddam and the old guard of the FLN had
stricken her name from the FLN party list. Saadani, she
said, had defended her and numerous other "modernist" MPs who
were subjected to the same treatment. According to Sabah,
Saadani had argued that it was not right to remove qualified
and effective MPs from the ballot at the mere behest of
certain senior members of the party.


3. (C) As a coordinator for the FLN primary process in two
districts of Algiers, Sabah recounted how her problems began
when she insisted on sharing with party members in her
districts a directive from Belkheddam -- intended only for
her and other coordinators -- that "clarified" certain
aspects of the standing guidance for the primary selection
process. The initial guidance on a point-based system had
been intended to make the selection process of FLN candidates
clear and transparent. The more narrowly circulated message
from Belkheddam added a number of vague categories, under
which the national party leadership could add points to a
candidate's locally determined score. Sabah said "military
service to the nation in its liberation from France" was one
category where candidate scores could be bolstered. Over
time, said Sabah, it became clear that points were added to
the scores of the "dinosaurs" of the party, individuals who
were friends of the FLN inner circle of leadership. Women,
she said, did not make the cut. Despite months of FLN public
assurances that it intended to field large numbers of women
candidates, Sabah expressed outrage that the number of women
on the FLN ballot for parliament nationwide amounted to fewer
than ten.


4. (C) Sabah, an FLN parliamentary vice president, said
dissension in the ranks of the FLN was far worse than press
accounts of squabbling indicated. Sabah estimated that at
least half of the FLN activists considered the FLN
leadership's actions "treasonous" and would not as a result
support the party's candidates in the elections. Many
members were pushing for a boycott of the balloting, but
Sabah said she had argued that it would be better to vote FLN
but invalidate the ballot by tearing or marking a portion of

it. Sabah explained that boycotting the ballot entirely was
a bad idea because the government might commit fraud and cast
ballots in the name of the boycotters. Spoiling the ballot,
in her view, would prevent this. She also said a smaller
group of FLN members was considering voting for the rival
RND. However the disgruntled FLN membership responded, she
said, there was much anger in the party at the blatant
disregard for the established primary process and the
inflation of scores for friends of the old guard.


5. (C) Sabah observed that the old guard was able to assert
itself and turn the page back to an earlier era because
Bouteflika was not in good health and could not stop it.
Belkheddam she said, was not the driving force behind the
belated changes to the scoring system for FLN candidates. It
was evident to her that Belkheddam was under pressure from
the old guard and was following their orders more than he was
leading the party. She repeated what other sources have
predicted: Belkheddam will replace Saadani or become
president of the Senate after the elections. Sabah said the
tampering with FLN primary process from on high reminded her
of a time before Bouteflika when the "Pouvoir" (the ruling
"power") divided up the votes by party before election day.
She said if the FLN won the May elections, the result would
clearly be fraudulent. Asked if she believed the "Pouvoir"
was trying to engineer an RND victory, Sabah responded that
if that were the case "the generals behind the curtain" would
not have been so incompetent in carrying out the plan. She
blamed instead the old guard's insularity and eagerness to
put its members' interests -- and those of their friends --
ahead of the country as a whole.

WHERE HAVE THE INDEPENDENTS GONE?
--------------


6. (C) Sabah said another indication that Algerian democracy
has regressed was the disqualification in Algiers province
(wilaya) of all petitions by independent candidates to appear
on the ballot. As other embassy contacts have noted, Sabah
said wilaya officials had the right to summon signers of
petitions on behalf of independent candidates to appear in
person at a particular place and time to verify the signer's
identity. She said it had been years since the wilaya of
Algiers exercised this right with the fervor it showed this
year. Naturally, she noted, 100 percent turnout of the
summoned signatories was impossible. As a result, officials
in Algiers (as is their right by law) invalidated the entire
petition when one or more individuals failed to appear.
Sabah added that officials in a large number of wilayas
similarly kept independent candidates off the ballot.
Although she did not know how many wilayas approved petitions
for independent candidates, she said they were few in number
and generally located in the desert south of the country.
Based on her conversations with political operatives and
independent candidates, many of whom have a long history of
serving in parliament, she was aware of no independent
candidates who qualified in the most populous wilayas. Sabah
observed that excluding independent candidates from the
ballot was the best way to carve up the vote for a
pre-ordained outcome. It was easier for the "Pouvoir," she
opined, to cut deals with the parties on final vote tallies
if the independent candidates were not part of the picture.


7. (C) In an April 30 meeting, RND MP Noureddine Benbraham
told us the upcoming elections would bring change to Algeria.
Benbraham, who heads the Algerian Muslim Scouts and has ties
to key senior officials, including President Bouteflika,
noted that many of the current cabinet ministers were running
near the top of their party lists for parliament seats. This
circumstance, he said, in and of itself suggested there would
be a significant shuffling of portfolios following the
elections. Given the internal divisions within the FLN,
Benbraham recalled that the RND had scored much better than
expected in the senatorial elections and did not face
internal divisions. He was optimistic the RND would score
better than the FLN at the polls in May. If it did, there
would be a big shift in Algerian politics. As for his own
future, Benbraham noted with no regret that the RND, despite
his credentials which include the chairman of the
parliamentary committee for issues of children and youth,
chose not to include him on the party list this year. Asked
if he might be asked to serve in the next government,
Benbraham smiled and said the post of greatest interest to
him was the ministry of youth and sports. Becoming more
sober, Benbraham said it was regrettable that FLN MP Samia

Moualfi, who he noted appeared in a MEPI-funded film, did not
make it past her party's nomination process. He said he was
with Moualfi in London when she received the call informing
her of the FLN decision and that she was shocked and
dismayed. In a final observation on the changes the
elections would bring, Benbraham noted matter of factly that
for the first time in years there were no independent
candidates on the ballot in Algiers. He said this was also
the case for the most populous provinces along the
Mediterranean shore. The only independent candidates on the
ballot of whom Benbraham was aware hailed from the less
populated southern desert.


8. (C) COMMENT: Belkheddam's second-guessing of the local
FLN primary process, as described by Sabah, smacks of the
party's behavior in the days when it was the single party.
Outgoing National Assembly President Saadani himself is
hardly a model of reform and transparency, but he did
represent change in the senior ranks of the strongest
Algerian political party. Some Algerian wags, with an
unparalleled ability to find conspiracies, view the isolation
of Saadani and other agents of change in the FLN as a sign of
a larger plan hatched by the generals behind the scenes to
favor the RND in the May 17 elections. That is not evident
to us. In any case, the lack of transparency in the FLN
candidate selection process and the dearth of women
candidates on the FLN lists are disappointing. The apparent
systematic exclusion of independent candidates from the
ballot is also cause for concern. Taken together, there is a
concerted effort within the FLN leadership to reassert an old
style of governance that harks back to the Algerian
experience of the 1970s and 1980s. It does not boost public
confidence that the May 17 elections will mark a step forward
in Algeria's democratic evolution.
FORD