Algeria's opposition Socialist Forces Front (FFS), which has strong support among the ethnic Berber minority, said Friday it would not participate in the country's May 30 elections, reported AFP.
"All the opinion seems to agree that these elections will be a charade," the party's first secretary Ahmed Djeddai said on state television after an extraordinary FFS council meeting in Algiers. "Algerians do not need elections, we need to live in peace and dignity," he added.
"Elections make sense in other democratic countries, but not in Algeria which is a dictatorship."
The FFS, led by the Swiss-based veteran politician Hocine Ait Ahmed, is a national party but draws much of its support from the Berber community in the mountainous eastern Kabylie region. The Kabylie region has been hit by riots this week which left at least one person dead and dozens injured as demonstrators pressed for the full withdrawal of paramilitary gendarmerie units blamed for massacres last year. (Albawaba.com)
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