Chafik Mesbah: Liamine Zeroual is the right man after Bouteflika

Retired army officer Mohamed Chafik Mesbah described former President Liamine Zeroual as “the right man to succeed Abdelaziz Bouteflika.”

“I do not find today any political personality able to reach consensus among Islamist and secular people. The only man who can do that is Liamine Zeroual (71 years old),” Chafik Mesbah told Le Temps Swiss daily newspaper.

He talked about other choices available to decision makers including former head of governments. Of them, there are Mouloud Hamrouche known as “the reforms man” and Ali Benflis who run for office in 2004. Yet, Liamine Zeroual is the strongest possibility, according to Mesbah.

Zeroual was Algeria’s president during the 1990’s violent decades. He ended his term due to media campaign.

Mesbah said the “Algerian political system is like a black box where people do not know how to manage it,” quoting an expression used by a US ambassador to Algeria.

The Swiss newspaper reported that all the political observers of Algeria’s affairs try to obtain the State’s administration secrets. Yet, they face a “wall which prevents them from seeing things.”

Zeroual has not come back to the political arena since he resigned in 1999. Former head of government Reda Malek visited him as he attended a conference in the province of Batna (east of Algiers). Shortly before that, he had met a number of war veterans’ children who said Zeroual did not have the intention to come back to the political arena.