Abbasi calls for halting fighting and postponing elections in Algeria

Leader of the Islamic Front for Salvation, Abbas Madani, yesterday extended a general call for halting the bloodshed in Algeria as from the beginning of Eid al-Adha (holiday), by the beginning of February, in the first procedural step for an initiative which he described as a "national people initiative" to solve the crisis in the country.

In a press conference he held in Doha yesterday, Madani said that the initiative is based on three steps which are: ending the crisis, solving the political crisis, and then the post- solution phase. He preconditioned halting fighting and all types of violence on issuing of a presidential pardon to include all victims of the crisis, as well as lifting the emergency case.

The leader of the banned Salvation Front called for postponement of the presidential elections, due to be made in April, and to work for providing conditions of its legitimacy and credibility, noting that current conditions "do not permit making elections that are conducive to solve the illegitimacy of the current regime."

He questioned how the elections will be held freely with transparency, "when a state of emergency exists." Worthy mentioning that Abbasi Madani has been living in Qatar since November 2003, in order to complete medical treatment he had started in Malaysia in the mid of 2003. Though he had signed (a document) not to be involved in politics or make political statements before he had left Algeria, however, he had announced his intention to release a people's initiative to get the country out of the current crisis it is in.