Bensalah:”Those who lamely invoke implementation of article 88 of the constitution are Fitna firebugs”

The interim Secretary General of the RND party, Abdelkader Bensalah has branded those opposition party leaders who’ have been clamouring for the swift implementation of article 88 of the constitution because of President Abdellaziz Bouteflika’s protracted illness as mindless firebugs of “Fitna” or discord.

Taking the floor on Thursday at the opening session of the RND national council in the sea resort town of Zeralda, west of Algiers, Mr Bensalah hit out vehemently against those opposition parties that have been brandishing the specter of a “power vacuum, chaos and logjam” at the highest spheres of the state on account of the prolonged illness of President Bouteflika who is now convalescing in a Paris hospital.

The interim RND party leader strongly castigated what he termed such low-down practices saying that  well-advised political figures or any other respectable persons shouldn’t fall into the trap of using the sickness of a legitimate head of state for sheer political purposes as it has been done over the past few weeks by some of the political class belonging to the opposition, he asserted.

Mr Bensalah indicated that there was no need at all to implement article 88 of the constitution as pitifully called for by some power-hungry political upstarts given that President Bouteflika’s health condition is improving steadily, according to his own doctors.

With regard to RND party matters, Mr Abdelkader Bensalah announced that the fourth RND party congress would be held in Algiers on December 26^th, 27^th and 28^th 2013 with a view to mapping out the party’s new strategy and electing a brand-new Secretary General in replacement of Mr Ahmed Ouyahia who stepped down from his post earlier this year.