RCD decides to boycott elections

Algeria’s Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) decided, with the majority of votes by the National Council’s members, to boycott the upcoming Presidential Elections, which were scheduled for April 17th, on the grounds that the elections will not only be a way to legitimize the authority based on “fraudulent practices.”

Head of RCD, Mohsen Belabbes said in a speech before members of the National Council of the party held on Friday, that the opacity and uncertainty that is occurring about the Presidential Elections of April, is a clear indication on rejecting the rotation of power, which has been eradicated completely after the rape of the Constitution in 2008, referring to the rejection of RCD’s proposal, which was surrounded by more than 40 parties and national figures, and which demanded to lift the power of Interior and Justice Ministries for organizing the elections, and assigning it to an independent commission, as the power acquired the administrative and judicial committees to prepare and supervise the elections.

“President Bouteflika returned with a medical certificate from the French Military Hospital Val de Grace, which allows him to run for the fourth term. French government provides a false testimony against the Algerian people by issuing a “fake” medical certificate about the physical and mental ability of the regime’s candidate. Large projects that are recently conquered by France during the visit of French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault a prior reward to this medical certificate”.

With this decision, RCD is now the first political party which decided to boycott the upcoming Presidential Elections, waiting for other political parties and national figures to join it, as it had been agreed earlier by a number of political parties under the flag of the Group 14 on last weekend, to take a unified decision on boycotting the Presidential Election, saying the game is already closed, and that the elections will neither be fair nor transparent.