INTRO

Every action should be governed by a reason behind it, at least that's what i think, and thus this presidential campaign is way too important to be missed, because it has several points of importance, the first being that never in the history of modern Algeria an election has been so clear because everybody knows that the current president Abdelaziz Bouteflika will be the winner, and that's why no so called "heavyweight" contender has registred to be the challenger, so let me make this clear for anybody who is not familiar with the scape of Algerian politics, we have six candidates for this presidential campaign, the current president Mr Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the man who gatheres such a consensus around him, and who is the most ambiguous figure in Algerian mondern politics, some claiming his is the savior, and others the anti-christ

so what interest can be in an elections with such a clear issue, the interest in any elections should be the fight between the candidates, and the suspense that lasts until the last minute, but if we don't have that it doesnt mean that all hope is lost, because these are historical elections, first because Mr Bouteflika will most probably be the last president who participated in the 1954revolution, which is important in a country looking for another legitmity after the « revolutionary legitimity » which has ruled the country for better or for worse for five decades has ran out of gas, the other is that these elections come directly after constitutional rectifications, which lifted the dam that prevented anybody to be a president for more then two terms which allowed Mr Bouteflika to participate to these elections, and third because the quantity of despair in the country fed by oracle-ish journalists and columinsts has led to aclimate of despair, which led into a general dis-interest in politics, which caused the biggest fear any regime can face, a low participation rate

So the strange thing is that Mr Bouteflika's representatives, or the leaders of the « presidential coalition » as well as the « heavy media » (these being the ENTV the government controlled television channel in Algeria, and the Algerian Radio).

Yes indeed, the rise in Oil and Gaz prices just before the recession has allowed Algeria to pay the majority of it's external debt, and to gather more then one hunred billion dollars, but unfortunatly this money did not have a big effect on the life standards of the majority of Algerians, because except for a minority of business people, and the whole circle surrounding them, the common Algerian is suffering from major crisis, unemployment, housing, and more then anything hope, this major ingredient in every happiness recipe.

So while the majority of Algerians are dreaming of a better life in the west, let's pretend that we care, and check under the hood of this campaign.