Al Jazeera: Three rejected presidential candidates were placed under “judicial supervision” and 68 others, including elected officials, were temporarily detained as part of an investigation into election fraud, a court in Al Jazeera said on Monday.
They are suspected of being involved in “signature selling” for the upcoming presidential election, which is scheduled for September 7. Candidates must collect a large number of them to be eligible for nomination.
The statement of the court stated: “Sixty-eight defendants are in temporary custody, three defendants were placed under judicial supervision, and six defendants were released after hearings.”
Last week, Algeria's chief prosecutor Lotfi Boudjama told state news agency APS that “more than 50 elected officials” had confessed to illegally receiving money to support presidential candidates.
On Monday, the three candidates placed under judicial supervision were named Saeeda Ngza, former minister Belkasem Sahli and a relatively unknown candidate named Abdul Hakim Hammadi.
While they are not in custody, they must check in regularly with authorities until the investigation is over.
Budjema said last week that those involved in the scam “will be caught”.
At a press conference before officially presenting his candidacy last month, Ngaza complained about the “difficulty” in the process of registering and obtaining signatures.
He said he hopes “the election process will be conducted in a transparent and integrated atmosphere without any bias.”
To be eligible to appear on the ballot, candidates must provide a list of at least 50,000 individual signatures from registered voters or from 600 members of at least 29 Algerian provincial assemblies.
Only three candidates, including incumbent President Abdel Majid Tebun, have been confirmed for the September 7 election.
Abdul Ali Hosni from the moderate Islamist party of the Community Movement for Peace and Yusuf Avchiche from the center-left Front of the Socialist Forces are the two candidates who will face Tebun.
The other 13 candidates were all rejected after failing to collect the required number of supporting signatures.
