ALGIERS, February 26 (IslamOnline.net) - Campaigning on a platform of political and economic reforms in Algeria, Louisa Hanoun made herself the first woman to run for presidency in the history of the country.

The leader of the country’s Workers Party, Hanoun is widely respected across the country for advocating civil rights and seeking to keep the country’s territorial integrity.

“Now that peace is back I have decided to run for the presidency,” Hanoun told supporters on Friday, February 20.

With a slogan of “The Algerian people must live”, the popular activist have to collect at least 75,000 signatures of voters in at least 25 out of 48 of Algeria's provinces for being a candidate.

Hanoun said she had collected 100,000, sufficient for her to obtain permission to run. She failed in her 1999 bid.

The presidential hopeful said the next polls are to be “detrimental to the life of Algerians”.

About a dozen candidates are expected to survive the selection process, several have announced their candidacy, including President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Bouteflika, announcing his bid for a second five-year term, is expected to win the April 6 elections, as Algerian opposition are up to arms with electoral fraud accusations.

Several other candidates have announced plans to run, including former prime minister Ali Bin Flis and Ahmed Taleb Ibrahimi, who has wide support among Islamic voters in Algeria.

All six of Bouteflika’s opponents quit the election race the day before the vote in 1999.

In presence of her party’s Central Committee, Hanoun is calling on all candidates to keep the territorial integrity of the country in priority and prevent all attempt to interfere in its internal affairs.

This came against the backdrop of opposition calling for foreign parties to interfere in the polls as was the case in Ivory Coast and Georgia.

Hanoun’s Friday address does not differ much from that of earlier addresses, with a scathing criticism of economic policy in Algeria currently applied in Algeria.

She denounced the privatization of strategic sectors, the high unemployment rate, particularly among the youth, following the economic reforms imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the wake of its deal with Algeria in 1993 to reschedule the country’s foreign debts.

Hanoun called for preserving social values of the Algerian people and maintaining security and welfare of the community.

She severely criticized attempts to divide the country supported by world financial organizations and military powers, as occurred in Iraq and other world countries.

Algerians living under poverty line amount to 40 percent, according to official statements, which put at 27 per cent the unemployment rate.

Yet, whether Algerians do accept a woman to take up the president post or not remains a question in the country. Do they trust her ability to govern and settle problems in a country highly charged with a complex legacy?

“Trying steps towards the presidential palace is enough to honor Algerian women who struggled along with men in the wake of the liberation war,” said one Algerian citizen called Hakim.

Abdel-Qader, 22, agreed, but believed that Hanoun would not be allowed to work in such “non-democratic atmosphere”.

“People will not vote for any candidate, even for Louisa, as they lost confidence in the election,” he said, referring to people’s lack of trust into the vote’s integrity.

Si Abu Allam, another Algerian, said that although he is impressed by Louisa’s courage, he would not accept her as a president.

“She is a perfect woman, but to become a president is something else. No…no…no… She may work in politics but I would not accept her as a president,” he added.

For people of the same sex, a belief in Louisa’s efficiency to lead the country is prevalent.

For Saida, putting a woman on equal footing in the usually male-dominated presidential candidacy set an example for other Arab and Muslim countries to follow in. Women in most Arab countries are promoted to senior posts through a referendum.

Louisa has got a doctorate of sociology from France, and worked in the political field at an early age, as she was imprisoned several times for her opposition before the introduction of the multiparty era in Algeria in 1988.