Butaflika invites international observers to supervise the elections

The Algerian President Abdul Aziz Butaflika has stressed his determination to invite international observers to investigate the transparency of the forthcoming presidential elections.

The Algerian news agency quoted Butaflika as saying in a message he had sent to the US President George W. Bush yesterday that he will ask the Arab League, the African federation, and the European parliament to delegate representatives from their sides to monitor the Presidential elections and to make sure of the transparency of the voting operation.

Butaflika explained that despite his opposition of the foreign interference in the affairs of countries, he will take this measure in order to eliminate doubts about the transparency of the elections and to prove to the whole world the political and social progress taking place in Algeria.

The ten candidates who are led by the secretary general of the national liberation front Ali Benflis called for assigning an independent divan to supervise the elections as a precondition for honesty and transparency. Both the Algerian prime minister Ahmad O Yahya and the Minister of the Interior Yazid Zarhounio who supervises the elections refuse this request.