Algeria’s Opposition Parties Reject Holding Early Legislative Elections

Algerian security services again accused of torturing a movement activist (AFP)
Algerian security services again accused of torturing a movement activist (AFP)
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Algeria’s Opposition Parties Reject Holding Early Legislative Elections

Algerian security services again accused of torturing a movement activist (AFP)
Algerian security services again accused of torturing a movement activist (AFP)

Algerian opposition parties have rejected President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s decision to simultaneously hold parliamentary and municipal elections, planned for June.

According to observers, Tebboune’s decision to dissolve the parliament and municipal councils to hold early elections is neither stipulated by the constitution nor the electoral law.

Earlier, the President announced his plan to dissolve the National Popular Assembly and call for elections in late February.

In an interview with two newspapers broadcast on public television, Tebboune affirmed that upon the request of several parties, the legislative and local elections will take place on the same day.

He also urged opposition parties to take part in the elections and oversee the expected electoral process.

The upcoming elections have nothing to do with the past, he affirmed, noting that the electoral law encourages qualified figures and elites to run and be part of the decision-making bodies.

“The next parliament may include a majority of the opposition,” he told the newspapers.

Six parties have already announced their participation in the expected early parliamentary elections. Namely, the Movement for the Society of Peace, the Islamic National Building Movement (Harakat al-Bina al-Watani), the liberal New Generation(Jil Jadid) party, the national Future Front (Jabhat El Moustakbel), the National Liberation Front and the Democratic National Rally party (RND).

Other parties, however, most notably the Labor Party and the Rally for Culture and Democracy, have expressed reservations about this step.

Meanwhile, an Algerian activist, who is the second this month, claimed that he was tortured during his detention at the Internal Security headquarters.

Lawyer Abdullah Haboul, who heads the advocate team of activist Sami Dernouni, said on Tuesday that his client was ill treated during investigation.

Lawyer Ali Farah, for his part, who is a member of Dernouni’s advocate team, said the activist told the judge that he was electrically shocked and undressed by the security forces.

He affirmed that he was beaten and deprived of his right to request medical examination during his jail time, contrary to what is stipulated in the Criminal Procedures Law.

No comments were made by the Defense Ministry, to which the Internal Security Agency is affiliated, nor the Justice Ministry, which has the right to monitor the general situation in civilian and military prisons.



Israel Pounds Southern Lebanon and Beirut Outskirts, Killing Five Medics

Fire and smoke erupt from a building just after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern Chiyah neighborhood on November 22, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
Fire and smoke erupt from a building just after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern Chiyah neighborhood on November 22, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
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Israel Pounds Southern Lebanon and Beirut Outskirts, Killing Five Medics

Fire and smoke erupt from a building just after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern Chiyah neighborhood on November 22, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
Fire and smoke erupt from a building just after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern Chiyah neighborhood on November 22, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)

Israeli forces pounded southern Lebanon and the outskirts of the capital Beirut on Friday, killing at least five medics, and ground troops clashed with Hezbollah fighters in the south.

Israel has pushed on with its intense military campaign against the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, tempering hopes that efforts by a US envoy will lead to an imminent ceasefire.

US mediator Amos Hochstein said this week in Beirut that a truce was "within our grasp". He travelled on to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz before returning to Washington, the news outlet Axios said.

His trip was aimed at ending more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah along Lebanon's southern border, which escalated when Israel ramped up its strikes in late September and sent ground troops into Lebanon on Oct. 1.

Israeli troops have fought Hezbollah in a strip of towns along the border and this week pushed deeper to the edges of Khiyam, a town some six km (four miles) from the border.

Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at Israeli troops east of Khiyam at least four times on Friday. Lebanese security sources told Reuters Israeli troops had also advanced in a string of villages to the west. They said Israel was most likely trying to isolate Khiyam before attacking the town.

Four Italian soldiers were lightly injured after two rockets exploded at a UNIFIL peacekeeping force base in southern Lebanon, a spokesperson for UNIFIL said on Friday.

Italian sources said an investigation was under way. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told Italian media that Hezbollah might be responsible for the attack.

Israeli strikes on two other villages in southern Lebanon killed five medics from a rescue force affiliated with Hezbollah, the Lebanese health ministry said.

The more than 3,500 people killed by Israeli strikes over the last year include more than 200 medics, the health ministry said.

EVACUATION WARNINGS AND STRIKES

Israel says its aim is to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from Israel's north because of rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which began firing across the border in support of Hamas at the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

Israel also mounted more strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, a once densely populated stronghold of Hezbollah.

Abeer Darwich, a resident of a building that was hit in Beirut southern suburbs on Friday, had to leave her apartment immediately after an evacuation warning from Israel's military.

She stood watching while an Israeli strike pounded the high rise building into dust.

"Do you know that most of the apartments' owners took credit to buy those houses? Life savings are gone, memories and safety ... which Israel decided to steal from us," Darwich said .

Evacuation orders were issued on X for several buildings in the area on Friday. Reuters footage showed one of the strikes appearing to pierce the center of a multi-storey building, which toppled in a cloud of smoke.