Algerian army refutes allegations of the socialist forces front over elections

In a statement issued by the Algerian official news agency, the Algerian defense ministry yesterday denied that the official at the military intelligence department Gen. Tawfiq Medyan had contacted the leader of the socialist forces, Hussein Ayat Ahmad, and proposed to him taking part in the presidential elections which took place recently.

The communications official at the ministry considered the news quoted by the Algerian papers to this effect as not correct, reminding the neutrality of the army in the election process and in the political work which remains the very specialty of politicians, and that the military establishment practices its constitutional role, as repeatedly confirmed by the army commander in chief Muhammad al-Ammari..

Earlier, the official for the military forces front in Algeria, Joudi Mu'ammari, made statements in which he said that gen. Medyan had contacted the leader of the socialist forces in Switzerland -- where he has been living for years -- and proposed to him taking part in the presidential elections, but he refused the proposal. A matter which made the party decide to boycott the presidential elections which President Abdul Aziz Butaflika won in a greater majority.

However, Mu'amari's statements came to doubt the neutrality of the military establishment and the credibility of the presidential elections which were described by international observers as remarkable and successful, at a time when the two candidates for the presidential elections Ali Benflis and Saeed Saadi are persistent to refuse its results and accuse the administration to falsification in the interests of President Butaflika.