What are the compulsory motives prompting Ali Benflis to vie for presidential rostrum?

The official announcement on Sunday at the conference hall of the Hilton hotel on the eastern outskirts of Algiers by former Algerian head of government, Ali Benflis, of his candidacy for the April presidential polls has triggered an array of comments among media circles about the compulsory motives and real reasons which have prompted this Algerian political figure, aged 71, to enter the presidential race after dismally failing in his 2004 election bid versus Abdellaziz Bouteflika who then won the ballot with a large majority of votes exceeding 85%.

Political analysts surmise that the 2014 national political setting is not so different from that of 2004 but nowadays the political game is seen as more closed and more restrained than before.

The leader of the New Generation (“Djil Djadid”) Party, Djilali Sofiane said that he also intended to stand as candidate for the upcoming elections provided incumbent President Bouteflika refrains from seeking a fourth mandate due to his health troubles.

The Manager of the Benflis communication cell, Lotfi Boumghar, told Echorouk that Ali Benflis was confident that the next presidential electoral contest would be more open than the previous ones as there was every likelihood that incumbent Bouteflika wouldn’t enter the race for a fourth term because of his glaring health problems.

He said that those politicians close to Bouteflika’s inner circle who have been prodding him through the media outlets to vie for a fourth straight term were only seeking to sow confusion and shuffle the cards in order to perpetuate their ill-gotten privileges by remaining at the helm at various levels of  the political sphere.

Lotfi Boumghar also indicated that candidate Ali Benflis had used his 10-year long retreat from the national political scene to analyze, to dissect the Algerian society’s woes and to try to bring adequate solutions, stressing that Ali Benflis would resolutely engage in the forthcoming electoral race with significant chances of carrying the day on April 17^th 2014.