This story was published on The New Arab https://english.alaraby.co.uk/opinion/why-algerias-problems-wont-be-solved-ballot-box

On June 12 polls will open for Algerians to cast their vote in legislative elections which the regime hailed on Thursday as a “new era” for the country, free of the dirty money that has dogged Algerian politics for decades.

The elections, initially slated to take place in 2022, were brought forward following the decision by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune earlier this year to dissolve the parliament after returning from a lengthy medical absence in Germany.

Presented as part and parcel of the regime’s political roadmap, the move was more an attempt…

This piece was originally published at https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/mesut-ozil-turkey-fenerbahce-politicised-playmaker

“I have two hearts. One German and one Turkish,” footballer Mesut Ozil said in 2018, when he announced he had ended his international career with the German national team.

After agreeing to join Turkish football club Fenerbahce after almost eight years at Arsenal, it appears one of those hearts is now beating loudest.

Since the rumours of Ozil’s move to Turkey were confirmed, football fans and politicians have made the German-born midfielder’s arrival “home” a sporting and political spectacle.

Istanbul’s Fenerbahce is one of the biggest clubs in Turkish and European football. Its fanbase includes both President Recep Tayyip Erdogan…

This article was first published on Middle East Eye https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/algeria-madame-maya-loses-appeal-hidden-daughter-bouteflika-zoulikha-chafika-nachinache

An Algerian businesswoman, rumoured to be the “hidden daughter” of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, lost her appeal on Thursday against a 12-year prison sentence.

Zoulikha-Chafika Nachinache, widely known as “Madame Maya”, had been imprisoned for money laundering “in the context of an organised criminal association”, “complicity in the abuse of office”, “requesting and accepting undue benefits through the use of a public official” and “complicity in the granting of undue benefits”.

A court in Tipaza, near the capital Algiers, upheld the sentences passed against Nachinache and 13 other defendants —…

Tunisian and Algerian officials are attempting to put the lid on tensions between the countries that have erupted over the US recognition of Western Sahara as Moroccan territory.

Tunisia’s foreign minister, Othman Jerandi, and the Algerian ambassador to Tunis, Azzouz Baalal, met on Tuesday in a bid to calm tensions following heated exchanges in recent days.

Jerandi reiterated the country’s “excellent relations” with Algeria and reinforced Tunisia’s position that relations between Tunisia and Algiers cannot be altered because of “unofficial positions which do not commit Tunisia in any way”.

The meeting came a day after comments made by former Tunisian…

This piece was first published on Middle East Eye at: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/algeria-dinar-record-low-economic-collapse

Decades of failed policy and reform drives that have amounted to little more than kicking the can down the road are catching up with the Algerian economy, as the dinar hit a new low this week and experts heralded more pain to come.

The decline of Algeria’s currency continues apace. On Thursday, the dinar was trading at 158.76 to the euro, and more than 200 on the black market.

The news has come as no surprise to many economists, who have been serving warnings of the perilous state of…

This story was published on Middle East Eye https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/al-qaeda-maghreb-new-leadership-decline

The death of its leader is a severe blow to any militant group. But in succession, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) may have revealed its true weakness.

In a video posted online on 21 November, AQIM confirmed senior Algerian commander Abu Ubayda Yusuf al-Annabi would take leadership following the death of Abdelmalek Droukdel, who was killed in June by a French-led operation in Mali.

Annabi’s lack of operational and combat experience, compared with Droudkel, who rose to the head of AQIM in 2004 as an experienced battalion leader, has led…

This article was published on the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy web: https://timep.org/commentary/analysis/algerias-worsening-crackdown-on-the-press-amid-transition-and-pandemic/#.X7RG458RSnM.twitter

In an interview with French daily l’Opinion last month, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune stated how “no journalist has been arrested for being a journalist” — only for “the breaching of public order.”

The recent spate arrests and incarceration of journalists is a reality that is not reflected by Tebboune’s comments, and his crackdown — since taking office in December 2019 — has led to unprecedented restrictions on freedom of expression in the country, according to Amnesty International.

Following a largely-boycotted election, there was increased pressure to…

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/prominent-algerian-war-veteran-and-hirak-activist-passes-away

Condolences have been pouring in for a prominent Algerian war veteran after news of his death broke on Wednesday evening.

Lakhdar Bouregaa, a revered veteran of the war of independence against France and a figure in Algeria’s popular Hirak, died at the age of 87 after he was hospitalised in Algiers on 21 October after testing positive for Covid-19.

Earlier media reports stated that he would be buried in the El Alia cemetery in the capital, where prominent figures of the war of liberation and former heads of state are interred. …