Belkhadem: “I won’t make any comment about my eviction”

The former Secretary General of the FLN party, Abdellaziz Belkhadem has refused in a telephone conversation with Echorouk to make any comment about the latest reaction by the current FLN party leader, Amar Saâdani, describing Belkhadem’s recent exclusion from the party ranks and state service by President Abdellaziz Bouteflika as a non event.

Belkhadem said that he wouldn’t engage in polemics by refraining to make any statement or comment about what is declared here and there about his exclusion by the President of the Republic himself.

FLN party sources brushed aside the idea of bringing Abdellaziz Belkhadem before the FLN party disciplinary committee, arguing that President Bouteflika’s decision was of a political nature and can’t be called into question

The same sources further indicated that Bouteflika’s decision to exclude Belkhadem from all state service and from the FLN party ranks altogether, was fully sovereign as the relevant presidential decree was officially published recently in the official Gazette.

This could be construed as an official sidelining from all political activity of the hapless Belkhadem and his case has no need to be reviewed by the party’s central committee because of its formal and binding nature, the same sources added.

Some party members however dubbed Belkhadem’s unexpected exclusion as unfair as the latter had served on numerous occasions the President of the Republic as part of intricate missions devolved upon by the state authorities.

As a reminder, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika late last month sacked his personal aide, also the former leader of the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN), and banned him from all state service, which local media said was due to infighting in the ruling party.

Citing a source at the President’s Office, the official news agency said President Bouteflika issued a decree to dismiss Abdelaziz Belkhadem in his capacity as the minister of state and the special adviser to president, and banned him of all activities related with state institutions.

The source added that the former FLN secretary-general had been informed, while all necessary measures have been taken for carrying out this decision.

But the source did not provide any further information on why such a decision was taken, as Belkhadem has been seen as one of the key state officials in Bouteflika’s government.

Abdellaziz Belkhadem served as prime minister for several terms. In the latest cabinet reshuffle after Bouteflika was re-elected for a fourth term in office in April, Belkhadem was appointed as the minister of state and the president’s special adviser, after a short “desert crossing” following his “forced” departure from the FLN party in May 2013.

Belkhadem has repeatedly tried to unseat the FLN’s current chief Amar Saadani, though both were among Algeria’s senior politicians who had helped ailing Bouteflika win a fourth five- year term in last April’s presidential polls.