Benflis: “The White Book” is evidence of my non-withdrawal after April 2014 Presidential polls

Algerian opposition politician, Ali Benflis, has warned that the country is in what he termed “a state of paralysis” because of the ongoing absence of the ailing president in the midst of a series of crises.

Algeria is a major U.S. ally in the fight against the scourge of terrorism and a new radical group calling itself “Jound El Khalifa” kidnapped and murdered a French hiker in the eastern Kabylia region last week.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 77, however, has made no public statement about the tragic incident but the Algerian government firmly condemned the assassination as “cowardly and odious” and pledged to hunt down relentlessly the perpetrators of this heinous crime.

His main opponent in the April 2014 elections, Ali Benflis, argued Tuesday said there is a “vacancy in power” and major decisions are being made by people neither “qualified nor legitimate”,  as he put it.

Benflis also said during a press conference that he had drafted together with his close collaborators and against all odds, a “White Book” exposing what he called the “widespread fraud and ballot-rigging” in last April’s presidential elections largely won by incumbent Abdellaziz Bouteflika.

Algeria is a large regional power and involved in negotiating an end to conflicts in neighboring Mali and Libya.