These are the People Taking Part in Algeria’s 2019 Electoral Protests
and how their participation may impact the nonviolent resistance
February 22nd, 2019 Algeria experienced unprecedented mass protests in the capital Algiers and in cities across the country. Ordinary Algerian citizens mobilised and took to the streets after the President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced he would run for a fifth term in April 2019 presidential elections. The Algerian people had enough.
Bouteflika has been Algeria’s longest serving president and held the position for a total of 20 years. Protestors argued the President was no longer fit to rule as he is rarely seen in public, aged 81 years old, and is of poor health. It has been estimated that hundreds of thousands of Algerians across the country are currently taking part in street protests and so far the country has been rocked by eleven consecutive weeks of protest.
For a country that has been virtually unaffected by the Arab Spring, this electoral uprising is incredibly exciting.
This isn’t the first time the Algerian people have demanded regime change. In 1988 Algeria experienced mass protests and riots that demanded the democratisation of the autocratic one-party state. Reforms were initiated that would allow multi-party elections. As it became clear in 1992 elections that the ruling party National Liberation Front (FLN) would lose to the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) the military banned the FIS and annulled elections.
Since the military coup of 1992, Algerian politics has remained within the control of an elite group based in the military and the FLN party. Protestors are now demanding a system overhaul and want a new generation of leaders to enter the political structure. They believe elections in Algeria will not be free and fair unless the judicial frameworks and institutions of Bouteflika’s regime are changed.
One of the most striking features of the uprisings has been the mass mobilisation. Civil resistance experts Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan attribute nonviolent movements’ successes to their ability to attract large numbers of participants. This, they argue, enables more diverse actors to take part in the nonviolent resistance who can enable multiple forms of non-cooperation within various socio-political structures. The more diverse a group is the more leverage it may have against its opponent.
The current protests in Algeria have no identifiable leader or organisation that is leading it. Instead, many different groups and people of multiple identities are taking part. Currently there are reports of ordinary civilians joining the protests as well as students, youth groups, lawyers and judges, mayors, independent trade unions, civil society groups, opposition parties, workers from the gas and oil sector, ethnic Berbers and a larger number of women than in previous demonstrations.
The openness and decentralisation of the Algerian movement has enabled the mass participation from diverse groups of society to take place. The fact that so many diverse actors and identity groups are demanding a more democratic Algeria is putting immense pressure on the regime. The movement has already experienced its first success with the resignation of Bouteflika on April 2nd. Now further members of the regime are being targeted and multiple groups have begun calling for an election boycott.
At the same time, the decentralisation of the movement has led to a lack of unified and specific proposals for political reform. This lack of specificity makes it difficult to predict which changes might still occur in Algeria. It has also given the regime opportunities to co-opt and divide it.
Another fear is that the polarised identities among protest participants may lead the nonviolent movement to lose cohesion. Under stress, group identities can become contentious. Group identities become more fixated on their in-group and are contrasted with an antagonistic out-group. This may lead certain identity groups to break off from the larger nonviolent movement and to begin making their own claims.
So far, the electoral uprisings in Algeria have been remarkably unified. Protestors chanted:
No Berbers, no Arabs, no ethnicity, or religion! We’re all Algerians!
Groups with varying identities have come together to push for democratic change through nonviolent resistance. It seems that the diversity of actors and identities have only strengthened the movement. Their unity demonstrates that there is a common desire among Algerians for real democratic change.
