Algeria will not be an experiment for Arab Spring, says minister

Algeria’s interior minister Nourredine Badaoui Tuesday said foreign officials are interested in the forthcoming legislative elections due to be held in 2017.

“In a meeting with a foreign official, he asked me about the legislative elections. I told him it is an ordinary event for Algerians,” said Badaoui.

“Are we interested in their elections?” he added.

The official is French. Paris is expected to hold elections this year.

The minister said in a meeting with civil society organizations that the Algerian society has a different structure compared to other societies. “We do not say that we are better than other societies. We are aware that we have negative points. Yet, other societies should respect our specificities and values. As Algerians, we are the only people who raise challenges as we did during the colonization and the bloody decade.”

Badaoui addressed a strong discourse to politicians. “We do not have enough time to be busy with skirmishes and political settlement of accounts. If anyone who tries to trigger division in those circumstances, it shows that he chose his camp.”

“To those people, we say the Algerian people are aware of their greed and will face it. They are aware of their agenda,” he added.

Asked about guarantees for elections turnout, the minister said the new Constitution and the Republic’s laws are the guarantees.

“If we have doubts about laws and values in the Constitution, what would we expect from the others who say our laws do not meet ambitions and democracy?” he added.

He renewed his instructions to prefects to optimize public expenses and stop squandering.

“Some provinces still spend the Public Treasury’s money without any strategy,” he said.