The extent that business continues more or less as usual was underlined when the electoral commission the Autorité nationale indépendante des élections (ANIE) president Mohammed Charfi announced that the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) had won most seats in local elections held on 27 November followed by the Rassemblement Nationale Démocratique (RND) whose founder ex-premier Ahmed Ouyahia is in prison for corruption...
Two ex-prime ministers Ahmed Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal have been tried in several different cases by the very busy Sidi M'hamed tribunal in central Algiers which has brought down leading associates of Saïd Bouteflika the former president's brother...
Politics continued during the lockdown including corruption trials in civilian and military courts of oligarchs and other members of the ancien régime including key allies of late military strongman Lt Gen Ahmed Gaïd Salah as well as such fallen luminaries of Bouteflika's rule as ex-premiers Ahmed Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal and business moguls close to Saïd Bouteflika led by Ali Haddad...
Respected former public company boss Djamila Tamazirt – who was promoted to clean up the Ministry of Industry following the corrupt spell of ex-premier Ahmed Ouyahia's close ally Abdeslam Bouchouareb (now believed to be in Lebanon) – has been replaced by Ferhat Aït Ali in one of several highly sensitive corruption-riddled portfolios...
Mihoubi cuts an intriguing figure as an award-winning poet and author of at least ten novels who succeeded four-times premier Ahmed Ouyahia as RND leader...
This has reflected suspicions at deals done by 'oligarch' businessmen like Ayoub Aissiou who was linked to the now imprisoned former premier Ahmed Ouyahia and ex-President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's brother Saïd (AC Vol 60 No 13 Rounding up unusual suspects)...
In the months since February security force décideurs have been toppled along with ex-President Abdelaziz Bouteflika his omnipresent brother Saïd Bouteflika four-time premier Ahmed Ouyahia and a number of crony business kingpins yet Gaïd Salah has not only retained control of the army but has been calling the shots within the interim government and an empowered judiciary (AC Vol 60 No 7 Protests flush out the old guard & Vol 60 No 13 Rounding up unusual suspects)...
Once four-time premier Ahmed Ouyahia was seen as a possible successor to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika...
Algeria's ex-Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia seen as Bouteflika's most likely successor just a few months ago Finance Minister Mohamed Loukal and former police chief Abdelghani Hamel have all appeared in court this week in three different cases involving corruption allegations...
Feeling free now to speak up local economists pointed out that Loukal had permitted ex-Premier Ahmed Ouyahia's version of quantitative easing...
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Prime Minister and Rassemblement national démocratique leader Ahmed Ouyahia has advocates in high places but widespread negative media coverage of his privatisation and other economic reform policies points to rival factions' campaigns against the ambitious four-time premier as well as his wider unpopularity...
