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| Africa: North |
| Algerian Berbers win local elections |
| 2005-11-26 |
| ALGIERS — Opposition parties have kept control of Algeria’s restive Berber Kabylie region following local elections aimed at boosting national reconciliation after years of unrest, results showed yesterday. The elections were called in June by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika who, as part of a peace plan with the leaders of the ethnic minority, dissolved local councils set up in 2002 in the Berber heartland, east of Algiers. Local elections in 2002 were largely boycotted by the Berbers over a long-running standoff with the government. Kabylie-based groups the Socialist Forces Front (FFS) and its rival Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), placed first and second in the vote, are known for dominating the Tizi Ouzou, Bejaia and Bouira provinces, which make up Kabylie. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 Good news: Nationalist Berbers hate panarabism and salafism/wahabism. A good number/most of them see islam as the instrument of arabism and thus an enemy. There is even a timid renaissance of christianism in Berberic regions. Of course the Algerian government has recently passed a law making the preaching of christianism a crime: meaning that the arabists think that thgeir instrument (islam) is in danger. |
| Posted by: JFM 2005-11-26 04:39 |