Algerian Islamists eye first election win
LAMINE CHIKHI ISLAMIST parties in Algeria expect to win parliamentary elections in June and take a major role in government, part of a strategy to gradually build clout within a system long dominated by a secular military that regards them with distrust. While the military will retain ultimate power, the Islamists are taking advantage of political ructions caused by the mass protests that forced out veteran president Abdelaziz Bouteflika in 2019. The largely secular Hirak protest movement still holds weekly demonstrations to demand a full purge of the old ruling elite and is boycotting the election, viewing it as a…