Algerian president tours hinterland

2009-03-31 20:37:04 -

TEBESSA, Algeria (AP) - The Algerian president took his campaign for re-election deep into the hinterland Tuesday, testing his popularity in the eastern highlands where al-Qaida-linked militants have increased bloody attacks in recent months.
Organizers said crowds of some 100,000 people _ complete with boy scouts, drummers and horsemen from the Chaoui tribes _

turned out to cheer Abdelaziz Bouteflika in the towns of Tebessa and Oum el-Bouaghi.
In power since 1999, Bouteflika is seeking a third term in the April 9 election, running against five other much lower-profile candidates. The president, 72, is viewed as nearly sure to win. The parliament changed the constitution to allow Bouteflika to run for a third term.
Most leftist opponents and high profile Islamists have called for a boycott of the election.
The biggest test of Bouteflika's candidacy may be whether people go to the poll. His campaign chief, Abdelmalek Sellal, says the president wants at least a 60 percent turnout.
Bouteflika is touring the vast North African country and hoping to draw 3 million Algerians at the mass rallies.
«That's 15 percent of all voters, and we're nearly there,» said campaign spokesman Abdeslam Bouchouareb.
On Tuesday, Bouteflika drummed his daily message to the crowds.
«I have three hopes,» he said: reconciliation between Islamists and secularists, national reconstruction and enhancing Algeria's profile abroad.
«Enough with the tears,» Bouteflika said. «And I know I'm talking in a region where terrorism still exists,» he said in Tebessa, a town some 600 kilometers (375 miles) southeast of the capital of Algiers and near the border with Tunisia.
Militants from al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa have stepped up attacks around Tebessa over the past few months and the area is now deemed one of the least safe in Algeria.
The group grew out of the last surviving insurgency movement active in the violence between armed Islamic groups and security forces that began in 1992 and has killed up to an estimated 200,000 people.
«Trabendo,» or large-scale border trafficking, is also considered on the rise in this impoverished region of barren plateaus and wind-swept hills.
Though Bouteflika gears his campaign to politics rather than social issues, he insisted Tuesday that fully pacifying the country would bring better economic conditions. «We have construction programs to restart, development plans to pursue,» he said, adding that «peace gives us the opportunity to rebuild.
Algeria is one of the world's largest oil and natural gas exporters. Boosted by years of high prices, the government has set a $200 billion investment plan. But the slumping oil price since the global financial meltdown has led observers to question whether Algeria can sustain its government spending.
While the state has an estimated $140 billion cash reserves, 90 percent of the country's revenue is linked to exporting hydrocarbons. Unemployment is officially 13 percent, but soars among youth.
Bouteflika is tempting some sectors with deeds. Just before starting his campaign, he canceled the debts of all farmers and cattle-herders contracted with the state and announced plans to nearly double allowances for students.