A “Diplomatic Crisis” Between Canada, Algeria Over Elections

A diplomatic “crisis” is seen in the sky between Algeria and Canada, as the North American country has rejected allowing 18 thousand Algerian nationals living there to vote ahead of the parliamentary elections of 10 May.

In fact, Algeria Minister for Nationals Abroad, Halim Benattalah told a press conference on Tuesday that the Canadian constitution bans holding foreign electoral campaigns and elections on its territory, because they are considered as an offense to the national sovereignty. “Well, the irony is that Canada has requested to send monitors ahead of May’s elections, but it rejects allowing foreigners to vote on its land;” Mr Benattalah said, adding that “Talks are still underway to convince Canadian authorities to show some understanding.” The official revealed that there are 900 thousands Algerian national electors subscribed abroad, 80 percent of which are in France. He further added that there are 48 candidate applications, including two women, and 40 independents. Meanwhile, Mr Benattalah revealed that about 420 foreign monitors are to supervise the parliamentary elections. He said the monitors represent the African Union (AU), the European Union (EU) and the Arab League (AL). “The AU, the EU and the AL are supposed to send, respectively, 200, 120 and 100 monitors ahead of 10 May’s elections,” he said, adding that “the number of monitors representing the Islamic Cooperation Organization and the United Nations, are still not determined.”