Ali Benflis supporters disrupt smooth running of Bouteflika’s electoral campaign

The representatives of the candidate Abdellaziz Bouteflika for the April 17 presidential elections in Algeria have firmly denounced acts of violence aimed at disrupting the proper conduct of their campaign rallies perpetrated by supporters of a rival candidate alluding to those of Ali Benflis.

In a statement made public on Tuesday, the management of the incumbent President’s campaign and candidate for the next Presidential polls, hit out against what they called the ‘unspeakable’ and ‘vile’ acts which targeted the facilitators of the campaign of their candidate, including Amar Ghoul and Amara Benyounes in Marseille as well as campaign manager himself Abdelmalek Sellal, on manifold occasions notably in the provinces of Ouargla and Tebessa and elsewhere.

Without explicitly giving a name, Bouteflika’s campaign management staff castigated these serious drifts, saying their perpetrators have been identified, and were the work of supporters of a “certain candidate” (Ali Benflis) adding that they had duly informed the presidential election monitoring commission about these unacceptable disruptive acts.

They further underscored that such heinous acts shouldn’t occur again during the electoral campaigning as the forthcoming April 17 presidential elections must be regarded as “a blessed feast for all Algerians”.

In a reaction and rejecting any responsibility or involvement in these untoward events, the France-based election campaign office of the candidate Ali Benflis has sought to exonerate itself through a declaration on the incidents which happened at the close of the campaign rally staged by the TAJ and the MPA leaders in Marseille earlier this week.

“We condemn these anti-democratic acts and practices of another age” and we claim to be “supporters of the debate and the free-wheeling contradiction in a climate totally devoid of violence and intimidation”, the declaration said.