Sellal: Race against the clock in marathon visits to provinces before presidential polls

Algerian Prime Minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, has engaged in a race against the clock with on schedule numerous working visits of inspection to various provinces of the country in an ambitious drive aimed at furbishing his personal image as a seasoned politician in expectation of the upcoming presidential elections slated for April 2014.

In less than a year after his nomination by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika as Prime Minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, has clearly secured the head of state’s confidence as no other Premier who preceded him.

Mr Abdelmalek Sellal started last week with a working visit of inspection to the Southern province of Ghardaia and he is expected to pay a similar visit on Wednesday to Sidi Bel Abbès followed by another one to Sétif province next Sunday, bringing the total to three visits of the like in the space of just one week.

The current Prime Minister has pledged to pay working visits to the 48 provinces of the country in a marathon drive ahead of the 2014 presidential contest despite his heavy timetable in coordinating and orienting the activities of the governmental team in the capital Algiers.

However, some analysts suggest that Sellal’s crisscrossing tour of the country’s provinces over the past weeks, supposedly designed to ensure the implementation on the ground of President Bouteflika’s economic development program, is covertly seen as a pre-election campaign launched by the Prime Minister to woo and to sway the electorate ahead of time.

They added that it was patently obvious that Abdelmalek Sellal had earned his stripes as a potential statesman after managing smoothly state affairs throughout the protracted illness of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika who decided as a result to retain him as Prime Minister during the recent sweeping government reshuffle marked by a change in not less than eleven ministerial portfolios.