Kasdi Merbah

Kasdi Merbah

Kasdi Merbah (April 16, 1938 – August 21, 1993) (Arabic: قاصدي مرباح‎‎) was the prime minister of Algeria from November 5, 1988 until September 9, 1989.

He was a member of the FLN, which ruled the country at that time. He was assassinated on August 21, 1993.

During the seventies and early eighties, he was the head of the security services (sécurité militaire), now the Intelligence and Security Department (Département du renseignement et de la sécurité, DRS). Before the 1988 uprisings, he had been minister twice: of agriculture and then of public health. Following the aforementioned uprisings, he constituted his own party known by its acronym "Madjd" (meaning "glory" in Arabic). Merbah appeared to be a very moderate politician and tried (secretly and overtly) to help in finding a solution for the crisis that erupted in 1992 following the interruption of the electoral process - the FIS having won almost the majority of the parliamentary seats in the first round of the first pluralistic legislative elections of December 1991 in Algeria. A great number of analysts attribute his assassination to his past in the security services and the many state secrets he possessed, beside the apparent moderate posture he had adopted with regard to dealing with the Islamist movements, particularly the FIS who went for the armed option.

References

Political offices
Preceded by Abdelhamid Brahimi	Prime Minister of Algeria 1988–1989	Succeeded by Mouloud Hamrouche