Power struggle takes centre stage ahead of Algerian presidential election

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/25/algeria-presidential-election-power-struggle

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What is the Algerian army up to? With the presidential election due next month, a power struggle has erupted between the two main branches of the military, a key player in Algeria's political life since independence.

The army high command, led by General Ahmed Gaïd Salah, who is also deputy defence minister, is at loggerheads with the department of intelligence and security (DRS), headed by General Mohamed Mediene, aka "Tewfik". Each day brings allegations and dismissals, fuelling public anxiety. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has finally broken his silence on the subject. In a message of sympathy to the families of victims of an army air crash this month, he said: "No one, regardless of their position, has the right to attack the people's national army or any other constitutional body."

The general secretary of the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN), Amar Saadani, on 3 February publicly criticised Mediene in an online interview, accusing the DRS of interfering at all levels of government. "I can't understand why the phones of officials should be tapped; only a judge is allowed to order that," he said. After citing a long list of DRS failures, he concluded: "Tewfik should have resigned after these setbacks." Comments of this sort by someone so close to the regime are unprecedented.

Two days later General Hassan, tasked with combating terrorism and supervising counter-espionage at the DRS, was arrested. He is not the first officer close to Mediene to be ousted. Last September several top DRS figures were sacked, and their successors were appointed by the army.

Loyalties are shifting, too. Athmane Tartag, thought to be Tewfik's deputy, has now sided with Salah, who is a close ally of the president.

With the election set for 17 April, Bouteflika himself is the focus of heated debate. Everyone wants to know whether he will run for a fourth term. Although he suffered a stroke last year, no fewer than 26 different parties have expressed support for his candidacy. Others, such as the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, have already called for a boycott of the poll.

But the conflict between the army and the secret service appears to reach beyond the presidential election. The bloodletting began in the aftermath of the Amenas gas plant siege and hostage crisis in the Algerian desert in January 2013. "This international humiliation unleashed discontent, and [Salah] is using it to decapitate the DRS," says Mohammed Hachemaoui, a Paris-based political scientist. "They want to eliminate Tewfik and seize power after Bouteflika has gone."

On 11 February three public figures – Ahmed Taleb Ibrahimi, Rachid Benyelles and Ali Yahia Abdenour, respectively, a former foreign minister, a retired general and the head of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights – published a text condemning Saadani's "irresponsible" outburst and calling on "all the forces of the country to voice their refusal" of a fourth term of office for Bouteflika "by all peaceful means".

A number of newspapers have endorsed this call, but many Algerians are afraid, and are refusing to become involved. "You have never looked after us, always excluding us from your projects," wrote former columnist Abdallah Benadouda on Facebook, in a riposte to the ruling elite. "Leave us in peace. Go and fight somewhere else."

This article appeared in Guardian Weekly, which incorporates material from Le Monde