Belayat: “Pt Bouteflika refuses to meddle in FLN Party’s internal affairs”

The coordinator of the FLN Party Politbureau, Abderrahmane Belayat, has affirmed that President Abdellaziz Bouteflika, who is now back home after a protracted medical treatment in France, has always refused to interfere in the FLN Party’s internal affairs because he is the “President of all the Algerians”, as he put it.

Mr Belayat said that before his illness, President Abdellaziz Bouteflika had never intervened directly in the Party’s rows and had prompted the relevant officials to clear the air and settle any dispute among the militants of the party in an orderly and efficient way for the sake of the preservation of the  party’s cohesion, resilience and unity.

He indicated that he planned to hold a meeting with members of the central committee and the politbureau in order to examine how best to thrash out a solution to the current crisis situation besetting the FLN.

Among the proposals to be discussed by the various protagonists, sources close to the party said the agenda would include the holding of the central committee meeting just after the end of Ramadhan, and the convening of an encounter with MP’S in a bid to settle the burning issue of FLN legislative structures, at the National Popular Assembly which has touched off an internecine power struggle over the past few weeks between Abderrahmane Belayat and disgruntled FLN parliamentarians.

These rebellious deputies have castigated Belayat’s expeditious methods after being removed from the top rostrum by the latter’s selective cooptation process within the National Popular Assembly.