Army chief of staff Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaed Salah
ALGIERS, Oct 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Algeria’s army said it would not back any candidate in a presidential election set for December to choose a successor to Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
“We affirm that only the people will pick the next president through ballot boxes, and the army will not support anyone,” a defence ministry statement quoted Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaid Salah as saying.
Gaid Salah accused the remnants of the old guard – who he claims to oppose – of trying to disrupt elections by “spreading propaganda” that the military would side with one of the candidates running for the presidency.
“The gang and its acolytes try to spread the idea that the army will support one of the candidates for the next presidential election,” he said. “This is a propaganda and its purpose is to disrupt the election.”
Gaid Salah, Algeria’s de facto strongman, also dubbed last week’s sentencing of Said Bouteflika, the former president’s brother, and ex-intelligence officers Mohamed Mediene and Bachir Tartag to 15 years in jail as a “just punishment”.
“The just punishment handed down to certain elements of the gang … [amount to] realising an urgent and legitimate claim of the people,” he said.
The three men alongside Workers Party leader Louisa Hanoune were accused of “conspiring against the army” and “the authority of the state”.
Gaid Salah himself faces sustained calls to step down from the protesters, who continue to mobilise on the streets some six months after the president’s forced departure. — NNN-AGENCIES
