When Abdelaziz Bouteflika returned from his exile in the UAE to Algeria to participate in the first pluralistic presidential elections in 1999, many wondered when he would be arrested and tried on judicial charges connected to mismanagement and corruption in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when he was Foreign Minister under late President Houari Boumediene. These accusations, which had caused Bouteflika to leave Algeria and live abroad for an extended period of time, were placed within the framework of liquidating the legacy of the late president. But the attention turned, at the start of those presidential elections, to the main prominent figures running as candidates, among them former Prime Ministers, ministers and high-ranking officials, and to the strength of each one's connection to the military institution, to determine who would win the presidency. Bouteflika's name had of course not been mentioned, at the start of the electoral campaign, among those likely to win. Yet as the campaign progressed, it began to appear that the electoral rallies held by Bouteflika were gathering more people than those held by the remaining candidates, in addition to covering the largest part of the country. But when certain prominent figures and minor political parties known for their connections to security services, in addition to some leaders of the banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS – Front Islamique du Salut), gradually started declaring their support for Bouteflika, it was confirmed that the man had become the candidate with the greatest support within the circles of the military institution. It thus became certain that he would be the next president, doing away with the pledge made by the generals to the political class that they would respect the political game and would not adopt a specific candidate. All other candidates then withdrew from the race a few days before the vote, and Bouteflika was elected President without competition in April 1999. He has remained in the presidency ever since, and is expected to run as candidate for yet another term in the next elections about a year from now, despite his age and poor health. Thus, Bouteflika was elected president upon the wishes of the military institution and has governed all these years with its support, even if he seemed during some phases to be trying to limit its influence or to be defying some of its high-ranking generals. Such support from the military institution has allowed the President to initiate the two programs of National Harmony and National Reconciliation, which have contributed to restoring overall stability to the country, by returning tens of thousands of armed fighters who had taken part in the fighting during the "Black Decade" (the Algerian Civil War of 1991-2002) to civilian life. It also allowed the government to provide funding for those two programs from the tremendous oil revenue the country enjoyed as a result of the significant rise in energy prices. Thus Algerians enjoyed a peace they had never known in the years preceding Bouteflika's election, although the Arab Maghreb branch of the Al-Qaeda organization remained active and capable of carrying out terrorist attacks here and there inside the country. And if the President is proud, as is the military institution, of this achievement at the security level, the political situation has remained as it was. The political pluralism mentioned in the constitution did not lay the foundations for pluralism at the level of political activity, and the significant increase in oil revenue did not reflect on the standard of living of ordinary people. Meanwhile, scandals of corruption, unlawful profit and monopoly have emerged, reaching amounts in the billions of dollars, with some of them following a trend of political liquidation and struggle for power and influence more than being mere criminal cases that ought to be confronted. In parallel to this, the government was unable to heal the wound of the Amazigh (Berbers), and did not address the complaints of its Amazigh citizens at the cultural and economic levels. Likewise, remote areas remained economically marginalized and continued to suffer neglect from the state at every level. In addition to the lack of pluralistic political expression, demonstrations and gatherings were banned, whether they would be raising political demands or social ones. Meanwhile, political representation in parliament was limited to traditional political parties, orbiting around the military institution and expressing the current ambitions of the generals who stand behind each one of them. Political life in Algeria has been "imprisoned" in this closed circle of struggles, while the larger part of civil society has remained outside the scope of political expression. Yet what truly did away with the bases of Algerian pluralism was tampering with the constitution and modifying it to be tailored to the President, who will remain Bouteflika as long as the military institution has not adopted another name with which it could repeat the same experience and preserve its influence and position in terms of decision-making and managing the country's affairs... Bouteflika was elected President and has governed for some 14 years, potentially renewable, in the name of pluralism. Yet it has become clear that such pluralism has been a mere façade disguising a static situation, even if the generals were to choose after some time a new name to place in the same façade.
