TIZI OUZOU, ALGERIA (AP) - The president pleaded Friday for national unity and an end to Algeria’s violence as he campaigned for re-election in the Kabylie region, a hotbed of terrorists and a stronghold for the left-wing and ethnic Kabyle opposition.
Hundreds of police, sharpshooters and armored vehicles were on hand in the region’s main city of Tizi Ouzou as Abdelaziz Bouteflika waded through crowds of supporters who greeted him with women’s traditional cries of acclaim and celebratory gunshots by Kabyle tribesmen.
In power since 1999, the 72-year-old Bouteflika is running for a third term in the April 9 election. He is overwhelmingly favored to win against the five other candidates _ two nationalists, two moderate Islamists and a veteran woman politician heading a small far-left party.
On Friday he said he had not come to the Kabylie region to “make speeches” but to sell a simple program: “continuity.”
The president has made ending hatred between Islamists and secularists, as well as quelling ethnic rivalries, the cornerstone of his mandate.
“I can only see myself as existing within national reconciliation and national unity,” Bouteflika said.
In the days before his visit, al-Qaida-linked militants carried out two deadly attacks near Tizi Ouzou, killing a lieutenant colonel on Thursday and a police officer Tuesday while attempting to storm a police station.
Bouteflika vowed the ongoing violence would not deter his National Reconciliation program. It is aimed at healing divisions born of an insurgency that reached its peak in the 1990s and left an estimated 200,000 people dead _ from civilians to security officers to Islamic insurgents.
He repeated appeals for insurgents to lay down their arms and said, “We have no hatred or bitterness toward you, and you can rejoin the national community at any time.” The reconciliation program, passed by referendum in 2005, offers amnesty to militants who renounce violence.
At the same time, Bouteflika appears bent on not relinquishing religion to radicals. Earlier this week, he described secularists as “better Muslims than the Islamists” because they don’t use Islam to further their personal goals.
With its steep mountains and deep forests, the Kabyle region has become a stronghold for militants of al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa.
With support from most lawmakers, all unions and the security forces, Bouteflika is considered sure to win the vote. His third term was made possible by a change in Algeria’s constitution in November to allow presidents to serve more than two terms.
Many observers view participation as the only remaining suspense in the vote. Most prominent Islamist or left-wing opposition leaders have called for boycott, claiming that fraud is inevitable.
Barely 10 percent of the people around Tizi Ouzou took part in the 2004 presidential election, and just over half of registered voters cast ballots nationwide.
But Bouteflika’s campaign hopes for at least a 60 percent turnout.
Algeria’s minister for water resources _ now on leave to manage Bouteflika’s campaign _ said he was convinced there would be a Bouteflika landslide. Abdelmalek Sellal told The Associated Press the campaign was aiming to win “around 75 to 80 percent” of the ballot.
“That’s our goal, and it’s also the impression we’re getting” from the crowds at the presidents’ rallies, Sellal said.
Bouteflika urged people in the Kabylie region to cast their votes, saying it was “a matter of life or death” for the country to reach unity.
Draped in a traditional Kabyle “burnous” robe, Bouteflika praised the Kabyle people for their role in fighting French colonial forces until Algeria’s independence in 1962. He also urged them to “stand with your heads high” and not let Islamist militants operate in their region.
“We never surrendered to French colonialism, why should we surrender to terrorists,” he said.
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