Charfi: “Ballot Box Will Settle Debate On Stance Of Majority Of Algerian People Regarding Elections”

 Mohamed Charfi, head of the national Independent Electoral Authority (ANIE), said on Thursday that the ballot box on December 12th would decide on the debate on where the majority of people stand with or against the presidential vote.

In my interview with Al-Arabiya, Mr. Charfi discounted certain opinions that the majority of Algerians are opposed to the upcoming elections. “On December 12th, the ballot box is the one which will say where the majority of the Algerian people stand? Are they with the election or not, as the ballot is the only way to express an opinion?”

He further explained, “We observe, through the manifold popular marches that take place in several regions across Algeria, that the groups that support the forthcoming presidential polls are more numerous than those that reject them, and the evidence is that thousands of demonstrators scour the country’s cities many times a day to support the electoral process, and this does not need to be evaluated,” as he put it.

In a separate development, the ANIE Authority President Mohamed Charfi, called Thursday in Algiers on magistrates responsible for the supervision of the presidential election of December 12th 2019, to ensure strict compliance with the law, so as to meet the legitimate aspirations of the Algerian people.

“We must ensure strict compliance with the law and maintain the confidence that will ensure the salvation that aspires to the Algerian people” through the next elections, said Mr. Charfi to the magistrates attending a training day organized by ANIE Authority.

He urged them to ask all the questions and raise queries about the new mechanisms adopted by ANIE in the organization of the elections and which ensure the conduct of the electoral process in full transparency.

Mr. Charfi also called on the judges in charge of the election supervision to bring the voice of the people to the ANIE Authority in all honesty so that the latter can officially announce the name of a next president of the Republic, who will be “elected and chosen by the voters in complete freedom and transparency “.