Algerian government proceeds with election preparations
Algeria, Politics, 9/5/1997

The Algerian Ministry of the Interior extended the time frame to midnight Thursday for acceptance of a document that would allow candidates to officially register for domestic elections to be held on October 23.

The election is proceeding despite almost daily reports of new massacres, most in rural areas. Radical Islamist groups are usually blamed for the massacres, which have killed an estimated 60,000 Algerians since the government canceled 1992 elections in which the now-outlawed Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) had taken a big lead.

Movement for a Peaceful Society (MPS) party official Khaled Ben Taher expected that the number of eligible figures would decrease in the next elections because of what he called "political pressures" imposed on the people and candidates.

Opposition parties filed protests that June parliamentary elections were fraudulent, including allegations that officials tampered with so-called "itinerant polling stations," used to gather votes from the scattered population. "Movable polling stations still belong to the single-party era," Movement for a Peaceful Society leader Mahfoud Nabnah said after the June 5 vote.

Previous Stories:
  13 killed. Zeroual assures Algerian elections will take place on October 23   (8/22/1997)
  Armed Islamic Group leader speaks out   (8/8/1997)

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