SMALL SECULAR OPPOSITION BLOC SAYS 2007 ELECTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L ALGIERS 000746 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/30/2027 TAGS: PGOV KDEM AG SUBJECT: SMALL SECULAR OPPOSITION BLOC SAYS 2007 ELECTION CLEANER BUT ITS OWN OUTLOOK UNCERTAIN REF: ALGIERS 716 Classified By: Ambassador Robert S. Ford, reasons 1.4 (b, d) ¶1. (C) Former Prime Minister Reda Malek, now head of the small secular opposition party the National Republican Alliance (ANR) political party, and his director of communications, Lakhdar Neddaf, invited us May 28 to ANR party headquarters for a discussion of the May 17 legislative elections and the road ahead. Malek said his party, which won four parliamentary seats, was aligned with the Democratic Republican Union (UDR) and the Movement of Social Democrats (MDS) and intended to continue the alliance into the October local elections. As a practical matter, Neddaf pointed out that the "Republican Alliance" brought the total number of parliamentary seats for the three parties to five, vice ANR's four. Still, Malek said it was a start. (Note: UDR has not been recognized by the Ministry of Interior as an accredited political party, but MDS won one seat in the recent elections. End Note.) LESS FRAUD IN 2007 -------------- -------------- -- -------------- ¶2. (C) Neddaf noted that ANR had boycotted the 2002 national legislative elections but decided the playing field had improved enough to justify participation in ¶2007. He said ANR judged that the 2007 elections were cleaner than those of 2002 because the fraud this time was committed solely by two political parties (FLN and RND) and not the government. Malek observed that the FLN had never cut its ties with the state or become a political party like all the rest. He said dislodging the FLN from its special place in society was essential in order to build democracy. Unfortunately, Malek said, the FLN was increasingly acting like the sole political party in Algeria. He cited the FLN's determination to rewrite the electoral law in the coming parliamentary session to disadvantage small parties like his as an example of how the FLN sought to dominate the political scene by force of law rather than through the power of its ideas. STRONGER CONSTITUENT RELATIONS -------------- -------------- -------------- ¶3. (C) Asked how the Republican Alliance would attempt to stand out in the upcoming parliament, Neddaf said the leaders of the three parties concerned had taken the decision to fund offices for their MPs in the areas of the country from which they were elected. In short, the Alliance wanted its MPs to spend more time with constituents at home to narrow the gap between voters and their elected officials. Neddaf said the Alliance's deputies would also call on the government to take action when it comes to economic reform rather than just talking about it. He commented that the Alliance's view of economic reform was 180 degrees apart from that of Louisa Hanoune's Workers' Party, whose populist platform, in ANR's view, won votes but would not give Algerians jobs. Making a difference in ordinary Algerians' lives, concluded Neddaf, was the new parliament's greatest challenge. COMMENT -------------- ¶4. (C) Malek and some of his political friends, such as former Health Minister Amara Benyounes, are among the most westernized politicians in Algeria. The independent French-language newspapers, most of which hope Algeria will evolve into a western-style democracy, always give these political figures big press play. However, with only five seats in the 389 member National Assembly, Malek and his allies have little political clout. (Notably, our MEPI-funded NDI program decided this little group had such dim immediate prospects that they were not included in the NDI programming in 2005 and 2006.) The larger, more conservative Algerian political parties that make up the government coalition are unhappy that dozens of seats in the new assembly went to little blocs like Malek's. Already, therefore, some government officials, such as the Minister of Interior, are speaking openly of changing Algeria's election law to raise the threshold percentages required for small parties to win seats in future parliaments. That might help relieve some of the fragmentation on the Algerian political stage. However, squeezing out little political blocs like those of Reda Malek will do little, if anything, to restore sagging public confidence in an Algerian political system that seems to be narrowing out hard debate and real accountability. FORD