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| - Algerian Finance Minister Aimene Benabderrahmane was named prime minister Wednesday, the presidency said, following legislative polls and as the country grapples with a deep socio-economic crisis. The elections earlier this month were seen by authorities as an opportunity to bolster their legitimacy, but were marred by a record low turnout amid a boycott by a resilient protest movement. "Aimene Benabderrahmane has been appointed prime minister and charged with carrying on consultations with political parties and civil society to form a government as soon as possible," the presidency said in a statement. The new prime minister was central bank governor from 2019 before taking up the finance ministry portfolio in June last year. "You are qualified for the task ahead as what awaits us is connected to economic and social affairs, and therefore financial" ones, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said, addressing Benabderrahmane. His name was among a clutch seen as possible replacements for Abdelaziz Djerad, who had held the post since late 2019 and presented his government's resignation last week, following early parliamentary elections held on June 12. Djerad's government had been unable to redress the oil-dependent country's economic crisis, which has seen hydrocarbon revenues slump amid the coronavirus pandemic. The economic malaise has fed into disillusionment that yielded an official turnout of 23 percent in the legislative poll, just the latest in a series of elections boycotted by the Hirak protest movement. Voters also stayed away in droves from the 2019 presidential election won by Tebboune, and from a 2020 referendum he spearheaded on a revised constitution. Tebboune himself was once a prime minister under president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, whose two decades in power ended in April 2019 after the Hirak protesters mobilised in their hundreds of thousands. The country's long-ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) won the most seats in parliament. A loose alliance of independents came second and has largely since pledged to support Tebboune. The president said he wanted the new government formed within a week and hoped Benabderrahmane would "succeed as you have succeeded in your post as finance minister". Tebboune had previously expressed dissatisfaction with Djerad and his government, but thanked him for his leadership "during difficult conditions". The new prime minister's priority will be putting together a government that can implement Tebboune's "road map" to re-start the Algerian economy, ahead of local government elections this autumn. The scale of that task is daunting -- unemployment stands at more than 12 percent, according to the World Bank, and Algerian energy giant Sonatrach on Tuesday said its export turnover slumped 39 percent in 2020, state media reported. Said Salhi, vice-president of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH), said recent political developments left the country "back at square one". "Tebboune is clearly determined to see through his 'road map' despite his failure, confirmed through three rounds of elections," Salhi said, referring to the presidential poll, constitutional referendum and the legislative election. The president is determined to ride out the Hirak's demands for an inclusive transition and an independent judiciary. Also on Wednesday, Algeria's main Islamist party the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), which came third in the election and was involved in government for part of the Bouteflika era, said it would not be part of a new administration. "We want to be in power and not its facade," MSP chief Abderazzak Makri told a news conference in Algiers, noting his party would have been unable to influence political and economic decision-making. But he said the president could count on the party's support on key issues, including "external threats" and dangers to national unity. ad-agr/lg/dwo
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