Sellal enters race against time before presidential elections

Algeria’s Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal entered a race against time ahead of the presidential elections as he is expected to pay three visits per week to different provinces.

Sellal started his week by visiting Ghardaia (south of Algiers) and will go to Sidi Belabes (west of Algiers) on Wednesday. He is expected to pay a visit to setif (east of Algiers) on Sunday.

Observers believe that those visits are part of an anticipated electoral campaign as they are almost similar to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s visits shortly before 2004 and 2009’s presidential elections.

It is also believed that Sellal was able to run the government in Bouteflika’s absence due to health problems. In the last reshuffle, he was maintained as he gained the president’s trust.

The Prime Minister is also in charge of representing the president on international occasions. He has run political and economic issues which used to be part of Bouteflika’s prerogatives.

All it seems that Sellal’s visits are part of his extraordinary mission and his prerogative extension to “represent the president.”

According to observers, his political future and roles will be clear when the next Constitution is amended.