Word: bendjedid
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...concluding round of parliamentary elections, proving that it could move peacefully from one-party socialist rule to a pluralist state, the country's military was putting the finishing touches on a bloodless coup d'etat. Last Thursday, just five days after the army forced the resignation of President Chadli Bendjedid, provoking the dissolution of parliament and cancellation of the elections that had promised to hand Muslim fundamentalists a legislative majority, Mohammed Boudiaf was sworn in as head of a military-backed, five-member Council of State. Boudiaf has splendid credentials -- he is nonpartisan and a hero of Algeria...
...least likely scenario is that Algeria's three main parties will sit idle and permit the Council of State to serve out the two remaining years of Bendjedid's aborted five-year term. There is also no guarantee that the army rank and file, more than half of whom are draftees, will support the military leadership. French Arabist Francois Burgat predicts that the army maneuver will be viewed as an attempt by a select group of officers to hold on to their privileges while Algeria sinks further into economic decay. "I would not be surprised to see factions...
Unless the fundamentalists win big next week, they will not enjoy a free hand in any case. President Chadli Bendjedid not only controls the army and police force but also wields the constitutional authority to dissolve parliament and declare a state of emergency. Should the fundamentalists achieve a two-thirds majority, they will have enough votes to force constitutional changes and override presidential vetoes. Jean Leca, a leading French expert on Algeria, warns that in such an event, strict social control and dictatorship are likely to follow. Other analysts predict that the military, which is committed to a modernizing, secular...
...economy's performance than the zeal of the newly seated fundamentalists. In 1991 inflation ran at a rate of 100%, and almost a quarter of the labor force is now out of work. Oil and gas revenues will decline if the fundamentalists scare off Algeria's European clients. Bendjedid recently implemented financial reforms aimed at wooing foreign funds. If democracy continues to flower, investment will be forthcoming, opening up new jobs and industries. But if daily life does not improve for the country's 26 million residents, Algerians may mistake fundamentalism for a panacea and sign...
...manifesto of civil disobedience and occupied sections of Algiers to protest electoral laws that they claimed were devised to deny them victory in parliamentary elections originally scheduled for June. After some 100 people died in street fighting between the army and demonstrators, balloting was postponed and President Chadli Bendjedid declared a state of siege to restore calm...