Presidential Elections 2014: Opposition Parties organize a Sit-in next Wednesday
Ahmed Benbitour, Algeria's former head of government. Photo: archives
Five political parties and the former Prime Minister, who withdrew from the elections’ race, Ahmed Benbitour, announced on the creation of a coordination for parties and personalities which boycott the Presidential Elections, and decided to organize a sit-in on Wednesday, followed by a popular gathering to call voters as well as candidates to boycott the forthcoming elections.
Leaders of the Movement for Society and Peace, RCD, Annahda, the Front for Justice and Development, the New Generation Party, and the former candidate for the Presidential Elections, Ahmed Ben Bitour, met on Thursday, to study the way to activate the decision to boycott the elections, as it was agreed to go out to the field, in an attempt to convince the people of the reasons and motives of boycotting the elections.
Participants of the meeting said the process is devoted to forgery and corruption , adding that the boycott is an effective contribution to peaceful change.
“The boycott have demonstrated successive senses and credibility. We invite candidates to withdraw from the “electoral farce”. Bias of administration and various state institutions to the president candidate, suggest that the process is already a foregone conclusion, and that participation is just a recommendation for this result, which constitutes a major threat to the interests and stability of the country. We call upon people to boycott these elections”.
Members of the coordinating parties and personalities which boycott the presidential elections, strongly condemned preventing the marches and sit-ins, and the suppression of the participants, considering that the ongoing political crisis is not about the 4th Term only.
“A peaceful sit-in will be organized next Wednesday, at the martyr’s shrine, then a popular gathering will be organized on Friday, to invite citizens to boycott the elections. Public Authorities are responsible for granting legal license for this. We agreed to form a joint committee to prepare a political national conference, for dialogue about the future of Algeria, and the mechanisms of democratic transition, as well as organizing regular meetings to develop a program for boycotting”.
Djilali Sofiane, leader of the New Generation Party, who is one of the members of this new bloc of withdrawing from the race, told Echorouk that they would study how citizens will interact with the actions that are taken by the coordination, in order to determine the next step; “The peaceful sit-in and the gathering will take place in Algiers’ Harsha Hall, as these are two initial steps that serve as an announcement. Our goal is not encouraging riots or inflaming the street, but the expression of a clear and explicit position, which is the need to change the path of the current political path”.
Leading member in the front of the Justice and Development, Lakhdar Ben Khellaf, said that the coordination of parties and personalities to boycott the elections, is preparing for peaceful movements to emphasize the position of the boycott, and to invite the candidates to withdraw from the Presidential Elections, without excluding the initiating of contacts with personalities that are candidate to persuade them to reverse their decisions.