Algerian Opposition Hints Fraud Irregularities Charged On Eve Of Presidential Election

The Islamic party considered the main challenger to President Liamine Zeroual complained Wednesday that its members were rounded up and voter rolls inflated ahead of today’s presidential election.

The charges raised doubts about the fairness of the election, Algeria’s first multiparty presidential balloting since the National Liberation Front established one-party rule after winning independence from France in 1962.

Zeroual has called today’s balloting a chance for Algerians to oppose religious-based politics and a 4-year-old civil war in which 40,000 people have died.

Sheik Mahfoudh Nahnah, president of the moderate Hamas Movement, said authorities Tuesday had rounded up at least 300 people, including 15 members of his party.

“These are the excesses of the Algerian administration,” said the 53-year-old Nahnah, whose party has no relation to the Palestinian group of the same name.

Hamas also questioned the legitimacy of voter rolls after the official figure rose from 14 million eligible voters three weeks ago to 16 million this week. The government says 2 million citizens of Algeria - which has one of the highest birth rates in the world - have reached voting age in the nearly four years since the last legislative elections.

Zeroual, a retired general appointed in 1994 to preside over a three-year transition to democracy, is heavily favored over Nahnah and two lesser-known candidates.

Leaders of the outlawed Islamic Salvation Front, which was banned after the military canceled the 1992 legislative elections the Front was poised to win, remain in jail.

Most of the political opposition, which along with the Islamic Salvation Front won 80 percent of the 1992 vote, is boycotting the election.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: ALGERIA FACTS Some facts and figures on Algeria: The Land: Located on the southern shore of the Mediterranean, Algeria is Africa’s second-largest country, 3-1/2 times the size of Texas. The People: The population, estimated at 28 million, is Arab and Muslim, with a significant Berber minority. The country has one of the highest birth rates in the world. The economy: Algeria at one point earned $12 billion per year - 97 percent of its export income - from oil and gas. The oil bonanza was abruptly cut in half in the 1980s. Now Algeria has a $26 billion foreign debt and more than 25 percent unemployment. History: More than 130 years of French colonial rule ended in 1962 following an eight-year war of independence. The Algerian army then set up an authoritarian regime that failed to build popular support. Associated Press