Benflis: «I didn’t threaten the Walis (Governors) and I won’t drag the people onto the streets»

Presidential hopeful Ali Benflis said on Tuesday that thousands of his supporters would monitor Algeria’s election, vowing to protest if it is rigged in favour of ailing incumbent Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who is seeking re-election.

Benflis is seen as the president’s main rival, and has repeatedly warned of fraud during the election campaign, describing it as his “main adversary” in Thursday’s vote.

Speaking to reporters in Algiers, he said he had an “army” of people in place to monitor the poll “consisting of 60 000 people, most of them young men and women armed to the teeth with conviction.”

“If the election is rigged, I will not keep quiet,” Benflis said.

“What will I do with these millions of people who have voted for me, if they realise that their votes have been rigged or tampered with?”

“Not to keep quiet means to protest, not to accept the will of the people being stolen,” he added.

Amnesty International has blamed Algerian authorities for  silencing critics and stepping up curbs on freedom of expression in the run-up to the election.

The 77-year-old Bouteflika, despite his poor health preventing him from even appearing in person on the campaign trail, remains firm favourite to win a fourth term.

But Benflis said he was confident of “victory” on Thursday April 17.

The former prime minister ran against and was heavily defeated by his former ally in 2004, alleging that Bouteflika’s landslide victory then was rigged.

“Fraud has become an enemy for me and that’s why I am condemning and fighting against it. Fraud is immoral and degrading, and dishonours all those who resort to it.”

Benflis and Bouteflika have waged a war of words in recent days, the president accusing his rival of inciting violence, sedition and even “terrorism via the television”, in reference to his warnings of electoral fraud.

Ali Benflis branded the charges “irresponsible”.

“These accusations reflect the state of panic and the disarray that has gripped those who made them,” he said.

“It is our right to preserve [the integrity of] our polls and call for fair elections. For these reasons, we intend to thoroughly supervise the electoral process, day and night. Our elections monitoring teams will be there to prevent any kind of fraud.

This time, I have a system in place that will fight fraud, with 60,000 observers for 60,000 polling stations… We will not leave until we get our counting report. This way, we will be able to give the results in real time,” Benflis stressed.

“Concerning the 1999 elections, I was Bouteflika’s campaign director. I was not responsible for counting polls. I came to that government with intentions to make Algeria a better place.

Later on when I discovered I was not on the right path, I was dismissed from my position because I had different views”, he further underlined.