Algerian liberation front reconvenes 8th conference

The Algerian National Liberation Front is preparing to convene its conference next Saturday and Sunday with the aim to unify their ranks after the split that took place prior to the recent presidential elections took place in the country.

The meeting aims at reconvening the 8th conference which was held in March 2003 following a dispute between the party's former secretary general Ali Bin Flis who assumed its presidency in September 2001 and the Algerian President Abdul Aziz Butaflika.

This meeting came at a decision of the Algerian state council which adopted the decision released by Algeria's court in December 2003 providing for "freezing all activities" of the front which includes the majority of the parliamentarians.

In the last presidential elections, Butaflika got 85% of the votes, while Bin Flis got 6.42% only. A matter which made him resign and return back to the status of a "simple militant." Bin Flis supporters did not agree to his withdrawal and continued their calls to rejuvenate the party and get it out from under the influence of the ruling authority. On the other side, Butaflika supporters launched the "Correctionist Movement" in order to return things in the party to the way they were before the split.

The foreign minister Abdul Aziz Balkhadem is considered the dynamo of the Correctionist Movement. He made great efforts to re-convene the 8th conference after postponing it more than one time. Some 3,000 cadres of the said party are expected to take part in the conference with many of them calling on Butaflika to preside over the party.

Worthy mentioning that the popularity of the Liberation Front has been greatly diminished following the acts of violence and unrest that took place in Algeria in October 1988, but restored back power in the parliamentary and local elections which took place in 2002.