Rabat – The secretary-general of Algeria’s Workers Party has joined the list of local public figures criticizing the Algerian political system.
During a press conference held at the party’s headquarters in Algiers on Wednesday, Louisa Hanoune heavily criticized the Algerian regime. She condemned the “mafiaization of state institutions,” referring to the arrest of senior officials involved in cocaine trafficking.
At a time when Algeria accused Morocco of “flooding” it with cannabis, Hanoune opened up about a scandal in the Algerian cabinet regarding senior government officials involved in smuggling over 700 kilograms of cocaine in May.
According to the politician, the scandal “reveals a mafiaization of state institutions already gangrenous by widespread corruption.”
Algerian newspaper Al Watan quoted Hanoune’s criticism, emphasizing that Algeria lives in a “political congestion, caught in a spiral of economic recession and social distress, it is a state that loses its authority internally and externally.”
Hanoune also expressed concerns over the next presidential election. For the politician, the election will take place in a “dangerous context” that will “lead the country to the unknown, it is to go to the abyss.”
Hanoune said, “We refuse to embark on the sterile debate on the 5th mandate, because it bypasses the central question that is the nature of the political regime, especially no one knows what will happen here.
“Should we change a man to replace him with another or change an ‘Escobarized’ system? It is to sign the death sentence of the country.”
In April, the Algerian ruling party the National Liberation Front called on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to run for a fifth term in the 2019 presidential election.
Algerian media reported earlier this year that the majority of the party sent requests to the president.
However, several Algerian public figures expressed disatisfaction with the Algerian political regime under the leadership of Bouteflika, who has been president since 1999.
In June, Algerian author and journalist Mohamed Benchicou criticized the political status and economic situation of the Algerian regime, describing the country as a “stateless” nation subjected to “corruption and predation.”
“We are not masters of our future either economically, socially, or politically. Everything is done to let things rot and to worsen delays,” he told Le Point d’Afrique.
Algerian journalist Lila Haddad recorded a video at the European Parliament’s studio in Brussels in June, denouncing the Algerian regime for “undermining” the dignity of Algerian citizens.
The journalist, who is based in Brussels, said that Bouteflika is “nothing more than a heap of flesh exposed to the world.”
Haddad appeared in another video less than a week after her first video, sharing her concerns and slamming both Bouteflika and his brother Said.
“I had asked your brother Said to show compassion and to release you. A feeling tells me that you wish to withdraw and that you are waiting for a favorable moment.”
The journalist also said that Algerian people are suffering social issues due to a “group of criminals who became decision-makers” following Bouteflika’s sickness.
In 2013, Bouteflika suffered a debilitating stroke.
