Islamists urge Bouteflika to reconsider reforms

Algeria’s Green Alliance, a coalition of the country’s Islamic parties, has called on President Abedulaziz Bouteflika to reconsider a system of reforms installed by the government two years ago. At the time, Bouteflika, who has been in power for 14 years, promised to amend the constitution by making changes to electoral law as well as implementing legislation to govern the country’s media. During a summit held in Algiers on Sunday, the Green Alliance said the reforms had “failed to realise the public’s aspirations for democracy.” Bouguerra Soltani, the head of the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP)—one of three parties within the Green Alliance— urged the government to “battle against corruption of all stripes” in order to implement a “fair” parliamentary system. The Green Alliance held the summit in celebration of the coalition’s first anniversary, with Soltani proudly pointing out that the Alliance has succeeded in becoming "the nucleus that has laid the foundations for rebuilding the Islamic project." The Islamist grouping consists of the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP) the Islamic Renaissance Movement (Ennahda) and the National Reform Movement. Soltani said the biggest success of the Green Alliance coalition has been in campaigning for lower food prices, after a hike in inflation lead to mass protests and unrest in 2011. As a result, the government responded by ordering cuts to the price of basic foodstuffs. “We (the Green Alliance) are saying that economic prosperity should be a top priority for the Algerian government in order to liberate the country’s economy from dependence on petroleum products,” said Soltani. “This can be achieved by laying out a new complementary economic policy, training workers, tackling corruption and having a strategic employment policy,” he added. Soltani reiterated that tackling corruption would help the situation by "uncovering the networks that are damaging the national economy and tarnishing Algeria's name."