FLN Party Rebel Faction Gears Up For Eviction of SG Belkhadem

The FLN party at the heart of power in the wake of its resounding legislative election win is nonetheless still racked by a simmering internal revolt aimed at ousting current Secretary General Abdellaziz Belkhadem, a move spearheaded by an influential rebel faction within the party.

• Though the FLN lost some of its status 20 years ago when Algeria adopted a multi-party system, even now it is seen as the “party of power”. President Bouteflika is honorary chairman of the FLN and most government ministers are members.

• But in the past few weeks, a fight for control has eclipsed the FLN’s august traditions.

• The rebel faction has been trying to hold an emergency session of the FLN’s central committee to vote no confidence in SG Abdellaziz Belkhadem.

• The party dissidents held a few weeks ago a brief protest in the front garden of the FLN building, shattering the calm of the street in the up-market Hydra district where the headquarters is located.

• The mutiny is now on hold after Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia intervened in early May and said the issue would be reviewed after the May 10 parliamentary election.
• But that is likely to be only a temporary reprieve for beleaguered Belkhadem.

• Abdelhamid Si Afif, a member of the FLN’s political bureau says the party chief must step down.

• Belkhadem’s opponents accuse him of being autocratic, too close to wealthy business interests and detrimental to the party’s popular appeal.

• “He handles the party as if it was something he owns. He arbitrarily excluded valuable party militants from running in the May 10^th election. He should quit because if he stays the FLN will whither ,” Si Afif told reporters.

• Belkhadem denies all the allegations, dismissing the FLN rebels as a small minority pursuing personal interests, not the party’s.

• The actions of Belkhadem’s opponents will have “the impact of a damp squib”, said Kassa Aissi, a member of the FLN’s political bureau and a close ally of the party leader.

• Abdellaziz Belkhadem “remains and will remain” head of the party, Kaissa Aissi told local media.

• However, political analysts surmise that the next few days will surely unravel all the intricacies of this burning showdown opposing the two rival camps with the holding of a decisive FLN party central committee meeting scheduled for mid June in Algiers.