Synonyms for Democracy

It was a national election that President Ahmed ben Bella could not lose.

Yet last week he scarcely looked like a winner.

After a week of campaigning, Algeria's voters were urged to flock to the polls to vote for one unexciting 138-man list of carefully selected candidates for the National Assembly. The pro-government newspaper Alger Republicain tried to reply to "those who regret that our country is not the scene of electoral battles as are practiced elsewhere" by lamely explaining that a "multiplicity of parties and programs is not necessarily synonymous with real democracy."

Ben Bella's government crowed that the turnout was 85%, not much below the figure last year when the electorate ratified Ben Bella as President. But Western observers, who found general apathy and indifference, felt that 60% would be closer to the truth. Indeed a cautious Ben Bella had forgone the usual pre-election mass meetings and rallies for fear that they might be lacking in enthusiasm and crowds, had confined the campaign to small neighborhood gatherings. Algiers' polling places were almost empty on election-day afternoon, though the official radio said they were kept open late "because of the heavy crowds." In Kabylia, infested with anti-government guerrillas, 43% of the voters boycotted the election, even at the risk of reprisals. Foreign newsmen were forbidden entrance to Michelet, hometown of Hocine Ai't Ahmed, a rabid Ben Bella opponent.

The new National Assembly, only a rubber stamp of the regime in any case, has been purged of the few remaining "retrogrades" and "unworthy militants." Ben Bella's scattered opposition now works aimlessly toward some kind of unity. Its leaders find that though the masses are apathetic toward Ben Bella and his "Islamic socialism," they seem equally indifferent to the rebels; even Rebel Chief Ait Ahmed has been complaining of "public lassitude." Perhaps the wisest Algerian of them all is Mohammed Khider, who made his opposition to Ben Bella clear by going into self-exile in Europe, and took with him $1,000,000 in party funds.

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