Rachad

Rachad (Arabic رشاد) is an Algerian political movement. Its stated objective is to break with political practices in place since independence and ensure, through "non-violent means", that the Algerian state complies with "the rule of law", democratic legitimacy and participation and "good governance".[1] It calls upon the Algerian people to overthrow the government by peaceful mass protests, arguing that the government is controlled by a military junta largely responsible for the horrors of the Algerian Civil War and for the country's economic and social malaise. The movement has the reputation for having a high "intellectual calibre of the leadership" and for transcending the gulf between secular and Islamist politics.[2]

Rachad was founded in 2007[3] by a number of Algerian opponents of the current government, including Abbas Aroua, Mourad Dhina, Rachid Mesli, Mohamed Samraoui, and Mohamed Larbi Zitout (who comprise the movement's secretariat, and all live in exile),[4] and others living in Algeria whose identity has not been made public. In September 2008, its founding member Abbas Aroua, through the Cordoba Foundation, organised a conference in Geneva, "Perspectives on political change in Algeria", which brought together Algerians from a variety of political perspectives who oppose the current system, including Rachad, to agree on a set of shared principles.[5] Along with other groups across the political spectrum, it called for a boycott of the 2009 presidential elections;[6] afterwards, it condemned the reported results as fraudulent (as later confirmed by WikiLeaks in 2011[7]), and claimed that the true participation rate was just 16%.[8] The organisation has made extensive use of TV and the Internet to spread its ideas, with spokespersons appearing on major channels including Aljazeera.[9] In January 2011, as unprecedented large-scale protests began in Algeria, it called upon its supporters to join demonstrations against the system. Rachad's pronouncements have been supportive of the Arab Spring uprisings, including the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya,[10] while condemning the Algerian political reforms undertaken by the Bouteflika régime as a "masquerade".[11]