ALGIERS: A court in Algiers said on Monday that three rejected presidential candidates were placed under “judicial supervision” while 68 others, including elected officials, were temporarily detained as part of an investigation into electoral fraud.
They are suspected of being involved in the “sales of signatures” for the upcoming presidential elections set for September 7. Candidates are required to collect a large number of them to be eligible to run.
“Sixty-eight defendants were placed in temporary detention, three were placed under judicial supervision and six were released after hearings,” the court said in a statement.
Last week, Lotfi Boudjemaa, the prosecutor general at the Algiers Court, told state news agency APS that “more than 50 elected officials” admitted to illegally receiving money to support presidential candidates.
On Monday, the three candidates placed under judicial supervision were named as Saida Neghza, former minister Belkacem Sahli and a relatively unknown candidate named Abdelhakim Hamadi.
While they are not under arrest, they will be asked to check in regularly with authorities until the investigation is complete.
Boudjemaa said last week that those involved in the fraud “will be arrested”.
In a press conference before officially submitting his candidacy last month, Neghza complained of “difficulties” in the process of registering and obtaining signatures.
She said she hoped that “the electoral process takes place in a climate of transparency and integrity, without any favoritism.”
To qualify to appear on the ballot, candidates must present a list of at least 50,000 individual signatures from registered voters or from 600 members of at least 29 provincial assemblies in Algeria.
Only three candidates, including incumbent Abdelmadjid Tebboune, have had their candidacies approved for the September 7 election.
Abdelaali Hassani of the moderate Islamist party Movement for Peace Society and Youssef Aouchiche of the center-left Socialist Forces Front are the two candidates who will run against Tebboune.
The other 13 aspirants had all their candidacies rejected after failing to collect the required number of supporting signatures.
