Djamel Ould Abbas: “I Was Subject To Pressures By Ministers”

Secretary-General of the National Liberation Front Party, Djamel Ould Abbas, denied that the Political Bureau was stripped of the authority to intervene in the study of the files of candidates for local elections, while he avoids commenting on the statement of Ahmed Taleb Ibrahimi, Ali Yahia Abdenour and the retired General Rachid Ben Yelles.

“What is important to FLN party now is how to achieve the desired results in the coming local elections”.

“I was pressurized in recent weeks to impose some names as candidates on the list of the National Liberation Front, but I did not accept that, including those names that were proposed by some ministers”, without giving their names.

“I consulted with members of the Political Bureau to issue the 12th structure that organized the process of candidates for the local elections from the beginning until filing the files at the level of the Ministry of Interior and local groups”. 

“Leaking such information intends to strain the relationship between the Secretary General and some party institutions, in hope of feeding illusions by removing me from the leadership of the party”.

A member of the Political Bureau adopted and defended the speech of Ould Abbas, but another member of the same body attended a press conference that was held at the International Convention Center on Monday, and told Echorouk that what the first man in the party said was directed to consumption in order to cover practices that contradict the legal and regulatory rule of FLN, and even questioned the figures that he gave.

Ould Abbas is accused of being independent of the decision-making within the party and the exclusion of his predecessor, Amar Sadani, and citing it by creating an “alternative body” that has no basis in the party system, that is composed of former and current ministers to study the files of candidates for local elections, a decision that is described as marginalizing the political bureau, which is supposed to be the actual decision maker in the party alongside the Secretary-General, as a confidant by the Central Committee.

The first man in the ruling party defended his results, asserting that FLN is participating in all the states with the exception of three municipalities, a figure that he considered better than the party’s outcome under the former Secretary-General, Abdelaziz Belkhadem, in the local elections of 2012, in which 35 municipalities were absent. 

As for the level of his candidates, Ould Abbas said that 65% of them are university graduates, 25% have an average level and 10% have the elementary level.

Ould Abbas asked about the accusations that his party has recently followed, saying: “FLN is a state builder which knows how to respect the law of the state, and is keen to respect the law”. 

The answer was in response to reports of the party changes to some of its candidates’ lists outside the legal deadlines and the Interior Ministry.