Algerian Finance Minister Ayman ben Abdelrahman was appointed prime minister after legislative elections earlier this month, and at a time when the country is trying to overcome a deep social and economic crisis, according to the presidency on Wednesday. .
The president said in a statement: “Ayman bin Abdul Rahman has been appointed prime minister and tasked with consulting with political parties and civil society to form a government as soon as possible.”
Bin Abdel Rahman, 60, replaces Abdelaziz Zarad, who held office since late 2019 and resigned from his government last week after mid-term parliamentary elections on June 12.
The Grad government was unable to deal with the country’s economic crisis.
Africa’s fourth-largest economy is heavily dependent on oil revenues, which collapsed due to the global economic downturn.
According to World Bank data, the unemployment rate is over 12%.
He thanked President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who had previously expressed dissatisfaction with Gerad and his government, including the pandemic of the new coronavirus, for their leadership of the government in “difficult conditions”.
Also on Wednesday, Algeria’s main Islamic party, the Society for Peace Movement, which finished third with 65 of the 407 parliament seats, said it would not be part of the new government.
The country’s current National Liberation Front had won the maximum number of seats in the elections held on June 12, in which only 23 per cent of the voters took part.
Low national participation is seen as a disappointment to a political class and a challenge to the Algerian people that has lost its credibility.
Algeria’s pro-democracy protest movement, Hirak, boycotted the elections.
Before the official results, the Society for Peace, a moderate Islamic party close to the Muslim Brotherhood, said its candidates were ahead in most areas and indicated it could be in government.
But after discussions with President Tebboune, the party said it had decided to back down.
“What has been proposed does not allow us to influence political and economic development,” Abdel-Razzaq Makri, head of the Movement for a Peace Society, told a news conference in Algiers.
He said he was asked to come up with a list of 27 names from which the executive would choose four or five ministers.
“It is not for us (in the government) to elect ministers and that is unacceptable,” he said.
“We want to be in power, not in front,” Makri said.
The MSP was part of successive Algerian governments from 1996 to 2011.
french press agency
Coffee enthusiast. Travel scholar. Infuriatingly humble zombie fanatic. Thinker. Professional twitter evangelist.
