Ahmed Ouyahia

In December 1995, Ouyahia was nominated as Prime Minister and held that position until December 1998,^[2] when he resigned following the election of Abdelaziz Bouteflika as president. The economic condition of Algeria in the late 1990s, as well as a wave of public sector strikes, contributed to his increasing unpopularity as Prime Minister^[6][7] and his December 1998 resignation. As well, opposition parliamentarians accused Ouyahia of rigging the 1997 elections.^[8][9]

In 2000, Ouyahia was elected as Secretary General of the National Rally for Democracy (RND), which he had earlier helped to found.^[1] He resigned from the post on 5 January 2013.^[10]

Ouyahia served as the Minister of State for Justice from 1999 to 2002 in Bouteflika's first government.^[1] During this time Ouyahia was assigned the task of securing a peace deal in the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea by Bouteflika, who was also the president of Organisation for African Unity in 2000. Ouyahia worked in conjunction with Anthony Lake, National Security Advisor to President Bill Clinton of the United States, and a peace deal was secured and signed in Algiers in December 2000.^[1]

A strong defender of the government, in February 2001, Ouyahia proposed new laws as justice minister which would have imposed a three-year prison term for authors of articles or drawings deemed "defamatory" to political leaders.^[11]

In June 2002, following the defeat of the RND in the 2002 parliamentary election, Ouyahia resigned and was nominated in the next government as Minister of State and Special Representative of the President, an honorary position entailing no governing power. In August 2004, Ouyahia was nominated as prime minister for a second time, following a political crisis between President Bouteflika and Prime Minister Ali Benflis, who was dismissed. Ouyahia served in the post for three years,^[2] until his resignation on 24 May 2006 amidst political arguments between Ouyahia's political party and Bouteflika's political party, the FLN.

Starting on 14 October 2004 and lasting through 10 November, the National Council of Secondary and Technical Education Professors (CNAPEST) and the Secondary School Council of Algiers (CLA) went on strike over low wages. education minister Boubekeur Benbouzid, backed by prime minister Ahmed Ouyahia, refused to meet with representatives of either union because they were not officially recognized. Instead, the Government ordered the suspension of more than 300 teachers and threatened further sanctions. only after the officially recognized UGTA affiliate National Federation of Education Workers (FNTE) joined the strike did the agree to raise wages.^[12]

The domestic press again asserted that his May 2006 resignation was due to public unpopularity after his opposition to public sector strikes, his opposition to a plan put forward by the rival FNL to raise salaries, and by his support for privatisation of industries.^[13]

In June 2005, Ouyahia called Al-Jazeera television, recently closed indefinitely by his government, "a channel whose sole aim was to tarnish Algeria's image." The channel had broadcast several reports critical of the government the week prior to its closure.^[14] From 1993 to 2000, around 4,000 men and women suddenly disappeared in Algeria after being arrested by security forces.^[15] Ouyahia has been accused by Western Human rights groups of downplaying the number missing and criticised for claiming that "a large number of the so-called disappeared were in fact in the ranks of terrorist groups."^[16][17]

Ouyahia has been widely credited with mediating a longstanding dispute between protesters leaders from his native Kabylie and the government. In 2005, the government took steps to defuse tensions with the Kabylie and address the concerns of regional leaders. In particular, prime minister Ahmed Ouyahia reached agreement on a number of Kabylie grievances with Arouch leader Belaid Abrika, who had been physically assaulted during a public protest rally and seriously injured in 2004 by members of government security services. The agreement dealt with economic and social concerns and made possible regional elections in November 2005.^{[18] [19]} Ouyahia made a number of visits to opposition leaders, and reached out in the Berber-language media for reconciliation.^[20]

After some prominent involvement in international diplomatic meetings earlier in 2008, Ouyahia was again named Prime Minister by Bouteflika on 23 June 2008.^[2] On this occasion, he pledged "to continue to apply the policy programme of the President of the Republic."^[21] The foreign and domestic press commented on the sometime stormy relations between Ouyahia and Bouteflika, which did not have the same way of his Prime Ministership.^[22] Ouyahia's term ended on 3 September 2012, and he was replaced by Abdulmalek Sellal.^[23]

Bouteflika appointed Ouyahia as Director of the Cabinet of the Presidency, with the rank of Minister of State, in March 2014.^[24] Ouyahia was again appointed as prime minister on 15 August 2017, succeeding Abdelmadjid Tebboune;^[25] he took office on 16 August.^[26]

In October 2018, Ouyahia announced that Algeria would ban the burqa at the workplace.^[27][28] In March 2019, Ouyahia resigned from his position as prime minister following President Bouteflika's announcement that he would not seek reelection following protests across the country.^[29] In June 2019, Ouyahia was arrested by the country's supreme court as part of an anti-corruption investigation.^[30] In December 2019, he was sentenced to 15 years in jail.^[31]

In March 2020, an appeals court upheld his sentence,^[32] to 12 years in prison.^[33] On 4 January 2021, Ouyahia was sentenced to seven years in prison, in relation to the corruption case in the tourism sector in Skikda.^[34]