Butaflika announces his nomination for elections; Benflis is not optimistic of winning

The Algerian President Abdul Aziz Butaflika announced yesterday he will take part in the presidential elections of next May in order to renew his term of office with the aim to complete economic reforms and establish peace in the country which still suffers the blood shed, while the secretary general of the National Liberation Front, Ali Benflis, also announced his nomination for the elections in order to defend values of "justice and the law," but he expressed pessimism over winning.

Butaflika's announcement was made in a statement issued by the state- run "al-Mujahid" on Thursday in which he said he will nominate himself for the presidential elections which will be held on April 8th. He said he aims behind his nomination to complete the economic reforms in Algeria and establish peace in the country after more than one decade of bloodshed.

An Algerian official source said on Wednesday that Butaflika will announce his nomination for the presidential elections openly next Sunday during an official celebration in the same hotel where Benflis is organizing his announcement.

For his part, Benflis stressed in Algiers yesterday his nomination for the elections despite the fact he is not optimistic over winning. He vowed before some 100 of his supporters to defend values of "justice and the law" as well as "democracy and party pluralism" in Algeria. He said "I am the nominee for presidency despite the fact I know that all doors are blocked and that falsification operations have started."