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Eggs, Protests, Apathy Greet Algeria's Presidential Campaign

Associated Press

   ALGIERS, ALGERIA - Algeria's presidential campaign is in trouble.
   Candidates are struggling to fill rally venues, campaign managers have
   quit, voters have pelted campaign headquarters with tomatoes and eggs,
   and the country's 9-month-old pro-democracy movement calls the whole
   thing a sham.

   The five candidates seeking to replace President Abdelaziz Bouteflika
   in the Dec. 12 election have failed to captivate a disillusioned
   public. Bouteflika was pushed out in April after 20 years in power amid
   an exceptional, peaceful protest movement, and now demonstrators want a
   wholesale change of political leadership.

   Instead, the election is managed by the long-serving power structure of
   this oil- and gas-rich country with a strategic role in the
   Mediterranean region. Instead of new faces, two of the candidates are
   former prime ministers and one is a loyalist of Algeria's influential
   army chief.

   The Hirak protest movement held their 41st weekly demonstrations
   Friday, denouncing the presidential election. But for the first time,
   thousands of pro-government supporters held their own rally Saturday.

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