Elections in Algeria are part of crisis, says Hamrouche

Algeria’s former head of government Mouloud Hamrouche Thursday said he will not run for office in the presidential elections due to be held in April due to “blockage factors.”

“I insist today on saying that the blockage factors still exist either the president’s mandate is renewed or not,” he told a press conference in Algiers.

“This blockage embodies real dangers, feeds dispersion factors, paralyzes institutions work and puts people under impossible pressure,” he added.

Hamrouche also said he did not run for office because he does not consider elections as a change mechanism in the current regime.

“If elections are the mechanism through which power is transferred smoothly in democratic regimes, it is not like that in Algeria. They were turned into a tool for exclusion,” he added.

He believes that “elections in Algeria have become a part of the crisis and not the solution because the regime is satisfied about a small rate of legitimacy. This small rate of credibility often leaves the State’s institutions in constant conflict with society.”

Hamrouche said he “does not defend the regime and does not want to topple it in a violent way but calmly and in responsibility. “That would enable everybody to be in.”