Declaration on parliamentary elections

Faced with a dull campaign without real debates between the parties on different projects of society, after so many years of repression of political expression and repression of the social movement and in the absence of a concrete political alternative which takes up the demands of the workers and popular masses, the majority of Algerians have responded by abstention.

However, despite the contempt of the rulers, the police repression and the silence of the political parties, obsessed with the race for parliament, struggles and mobilisations for democratic, social and economic demands did not stop during this campaign, such as those of the teachers, the workers at Cevital or the Algiers metro, the clerks, the youth of Jijel and so on.

The official results, announced before even the completion of the operations of analysis and the drawing up of minutes and related items, which gave a crushing victory to the FLN, a long way ahead of its habitual allies the RND and MSP, are surreal and unacceptable. The mode of scrutiny, favouring the presidential alliance, as we wrote on April1, 2012, imposes an “old majority” which is one more in the minority and represents less than 15% of those registered to vote.

Beyond this fact, the violations recorded at a national scale, and noted by the CNSEL (the national commission for surveillance of the elections), such as preventing members of monitoring commissions and observers from political parties from entering many polling stations, the profusion of proxy votes par in astronomical proportions, the use of physical violence against candidates and observers, discredit these elections and the results proclaimed.

The PST participated in these elections without any illusions as we indicated throughout the campaign. These elections have constituted a tribune to publicise our political proposals and build our party. The echoes of the campaign of the PST and its call for a “rally of the left” were very positive and meetings with our political partners and the local committees of the social movement are being prepared.

For us the fight continues! We must prepare ourselves to wage new political battles, to federate the resistance and the struggles of the social movement to build the relationship of forces which will impose our democratic and social rights and a politics opposed to neo-liberalism and imperialism, a politics at the service of the workers and popular masses of our country.