FLN party in the throes of dissension on the eve of crucial central committee meeting

The former single party FLN is in the throes of confusion and a pandemonium on the eve of the planned meeting tomorrow in Algiers of a long-delayed central committee meeting aimed at electing a new Secretary General of the party in replacement of Abdellaziz Belkhadem who was forcefully driven out from his post 7 months ago after a show of strength with his bitter opponents.

Since then, the FLN party has been woefully divided between two opposing camps whose antagonistic attitude and hostile statements towards each other further eroded the party’s frail unity and cohesion.

These two hostile camps represented, on the one side by Ahmed Boumahdi and Abderrahmane Belayat on the other, have been trading accusations of betrayal and deviation from the party’s policy-line and principles with the aim of swaying the maximum members of the politbureau and the central committee on the eve of the election of a new party Secretary General amenable to their respective cause.

Echorouk journalists sought to get in touch with Abderrahmane Belayat, the current party coordinator to secure clarifications and explanations about the oongoing murky juncture ahead of the decisive central committee meeting but to no avail as the latter argued that he had a heavy working schedule throughout the day.

However, Ahmed Boumahdi told Echorouk that his supportive camp was not actually against Belayat himself saying that they were in the recent past united in ousting much-controversial Abdellaziz Belkhadem, the former FLN party Secretary General, adding that the latter was not legally entitled to vie for the party’s top rostrum in tomorrow’s election to be held during the central committee meeting slated for next Thursday at the conference hall of the Aurassi hotel in upper Algiers.