Algeria Presidential: finances shortage for Bouteflika...s opponents

Five opponents of the incumbent president Abdelaziz Bouteflika continue their campaign for the presidential election in Algeria, but they struggle to compete with the favourite of the 9 April election whose supporters deploy large resources for his re-election.

•     These opponents of the incumbent president and candidate for a third term, make everything to be heard by the voters since the beginning of this election campaign which started on March 19, but already denounced the weakness of their financial means, primarily those who can not rely on the support assets of a permanent party.
  
      The state allocates to each candidate 15 million dinars (150,000 euros) for his campaign, a sum not sufficient to cover the costs of: public meetings, posters, updating the website, told the press Souad Layadi, the communication cell of Mohamed Said, candidate of the Party of Freedom and Justice (PJL not approved).
  
      Without money, he had to reduce the number of his meetings from 32 to 20 and the call for his citizens to raise funds has been disappointing. The trips are made by car, by plane very often, says Souad Layadi.
  
      Louisa Hanoune, known to the voters to whom she presented for the second time in a presidential on behalf of the Workers Party (PT, Trotskyist), was editing her program to 2.5 million copies, drawing posters and multiplies public meetings, which requires a lot of money, says his charged of communication.
  
      The state aid is insufficient and there are unavoidable costs, he added, saying that counting on television and public radio stations to disseminate the ideas of PT in the slots to the candidate.
  
      Taking advantage of some success in local elections in 2007, after which he proclaimed third political force in the country, the Algerian National Front candidate Moussa Touati organized a caravan which will visit 40 departments for work of nearby, said one of his leaders, while the candidate makes up to 4 meetings per day.
  
      But we lack the financial resources, assistance from the State we have not arrived to us yet and we are working with the means in our hand, he says.
  
      Djahid YOUNSI, who will represent the Islamist movement during 40 meetings, has also pointed out the limited resources, said his entourage, who also stresses the importance of outdoors work.
  
      Finally, the candidate Ali Fawzi Rebbaïne (54 Oath, nationalist, less than 1% of the vote in 2004), who describes himself as the candidate of the poor often holds his meetings in houses of culture or in homes of youth’.
  
     The direction of campaign of Mr. Bouteflika has provided a score of the candidate’s travel in the country, but the parties, including the three making up the presidential Alliance - supporting his candidacy organize some 8,000 local meetings in favour of a third term.
  
      In Algiers alone, nearly 5,000 associations and neighborhoods’ committees have been tasked to convince voters to go to the polls; abstention remains the principal opponent of the six candidates, according to the Algerian private press unanimous on this point.
  
      In all towns of his electoral meetings as Batna (435 km south-east of Algiers) where he opened his campaign, and Bechar, a city in south-western Algeria and Tlemcen (West) but also in the capital, streets are covered with his huge portraits sometimes bearing the slogan "For a strong and serene Algeria.
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.