Staff Writer

Speaking to Radio Islam International, Dr Mohammed Chtatou argued that the low turnout in the Algerian local government poll was not a surprise, mainly since many of the citizenry are frustrated with the country’s political system and poor economic performance. He argued that the system was controlled by the military, and that Abdel Majed Tabboune was seen by Algerians as a puppet president. Further, he argued that there will be little change following the poll because,“the Algerians really [showed] their views during the [2019] manifestations and demonstrations in the streets. They want a civilian government, they want to change governance, And, if that doesn’t happen, nobody would be interested in politics.”

Regarding Saif Al Islam’s disqualification from the December 24 Libyan election, he reiterated that it has everything to do with his indictment by the International Criminal Court. Dr Chtatou argued that Libyans would not want as a leader, a person with such a horrendous record, and who is a “reflection of his father” to once again be at the helm of the country. He argued that while he remained popular in some areas, the disqualification was a “good” decision. He also prognosticated that Khalifa Haftar was likely not to win the poll, “because what we can say about Saif, we can say about Haftar. Haftar has also a very bad past of violence, [a] past of killing Libyans. So, I don’t think the Libyans want him to be their new president. They want a new person. They want a person who has clean hands. They want a person who can represent a new Libya democratically, a civilian who can be answerable, a person who can be accountable to the public, to the constitution and to the new political institutions.”

In relation to 2022, he argued that the region was likely to continue seeing conflict, especially since outside powers, the US, Europe, Russia, and even China, have used and are using it to mount their own proxy battles.

Lastly, Dr Chtatou reiterated that Morocco’s ban on South African flights had much to do with the Omicron variant, and that was realistically the only solution to prevent it from entering the country.