Is It The End Of Ouyahia’s Political Life?

The appearance of the former Prime Minister and General-Secretary of the National Democratic Rally Party, Ahmed Ouyahia, in front of justice in cases related to wasting public money and providing extra-legal benefits, which have grown since the outbreak of popular demonstrations in the last week of February, increased his troubles in the country.

Ouyahia’s concerns, which began on Tuesday with justice, will not stop at this level, but will also be complicated at the political level, and precisely with the position of his opponents in the party, who considered his judicial follow-up as evidence of the legitimacy of their demand to oust him.

The National Democratic Rally is on the verge of a corrective movement which aims to oust its secretary-general, led by his closest confidant and former right-hand man, Chihab Saddik, and his former Sports Minister, Belkacem Mellah, and frames which he dismissed earlier for their rebellion against him.

Ouyahia’s opponents received his appearance on Tuesday before the investigating judge at the Sidi Mohamed court in the capital, with great satisfaction. They considered the move to be an impetus for their party’s project, which is based on the premise of the end of Ouyahia as a political man who was in the past close to becoming the President of the Republic, driven by forces that placed themselves above the constitutional institutions.

Cameras caught the former prime minister in an unenviable situation, as he was chased by some curious and angry citizens when he left the court in an unusual scene which marked the end of the velvet political life that Ouyahia had lived for nearly three decades which noticed accumulation of citizen’s anger and hatred because he was an official who did not support the fragile categories of society.

Ouyahia’s appearance before justice is the first of its kind to an official of his level, and he was preceded to the court of Sidi Mohamed by the current Finance Minister, Mohamed Loukal, who is also trialed on charges similar to those pursued by the former prime minister, which means that the government staff are no longer safe from Judicial follow-up in the future.

Bringing Ouyahia to justice means that his days are few at the level of the Democratic Rally party, as this step is considered the end of his political life that is decided by the demands the popular movement, which still insists on the exclusion and accountability of those involved in bringing the country to the current situation, either falling into the quagmire of corruption and looting of public money, or wasting hundreds of billions of dollars of oil, which evaporated without realizing the simplest dreams of the Algerian citizens.

It is well known that the former prime minister, who led the government for 12 years in less than 25 years and even during the second half of this period, was not far from the decision-making powers either as a minister or as a director of the presidency during the era of the former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and the former president, retired general Liamine Zerouale, which increases his responsibility in the multi-dimensional crisis of the country.