This capital now boils with political activity as Algeria undertakes an Arab-style transition toward democracy. One question dominates: will free elections in this North African country replace a Marxist-style dictatorship with an Islamic one? The potent brew of politics and religion bubbles to life each evening in the Casbah, where bearded young men sip mint tea and dissect democracy and the Koran in a capital long derided as ``Moscow on the Med.'' ``Vive FIS'' (``Long Live The Islamic Salvation Front'') reads the graffiti on the Ketchaoua mosque, a bastion of Algeria's most potent political movement. ``This is a Moslem country,'' said Ali Hamidouche, 32. ``It's only natural that people would want a Moslem government.'' The 28 political parties and lively free press born since constitutional rforms in 1989 contrast sharply with an Arab world ruled by monarchs, dictators and one-party states. But vows by Islamic councils elected last June to impose Koranic law fuel fears that the democratic experiment may be short. ``If the FIS wins, we're dead,'' a leading women's rights activist said. The Islamic Salvation Front took control of more than half the country's municipal and regional councils June 12 in Algeria's first free elections since independence from France in 1962. The verdict repudiated the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) and its 28-year monopoly on power. But local councils hold little power. The fundamentalists cannot effect changes while the FLN holds all seats in the National Assembly. Their complaints forced President Chadli Bendjedid to move legislative elections ahead a year to next spring. ``No matter who wins, the first success of these elections will be stability and legitimacy for the National Assembly,'' FIS leader Abassi Madani said in a recent newspaper interview. The 59-year-old philosophy professor presents the moderate face of a movement encompassing classical scholars and pro-Iranian radicals. His alter ego is Ali Belhadj, 31, whose fiery speeches attract thousands. He blames ``infidels'' - France chief among them - for Algeria's woes. For the young men outside the Ketchaoua mosque, the FIS heralds an end to the Soviet-inspired system the National Liberation Front imposed on Algeria, one of the continent's largest countries and situated on the Mediterranean. The fundamentalists' message is clear: the old regime was corrupt. It brought poverty and unemployment. An Islamic regime will stop corruption and, thereby, social problems. The FIS vows to end to secular practices that let men and women mingle at school and work. ``For us, secularism means liberty from God,'' Hamidouche said with a grimace. Ranged against the fundamentalists are dozens of political groupings, but only a handful with significant support. The FLN remains the best organized. Thousands of its adherents run the public sector to which most Algerians owe their livelihood. But the FLN managed only to win a quarter of the June vote. ``They'll be lucky to keep 25 percent next time,'' a Western diplomat said. ``People are fed up, and they've thrown up no young, charismatic leader.'' The oppostion includes the liberal Rally for Culture and Democracy, the centrist Front for Socialist Forces and the populist Movement for Democracy in Algeria. The Rally received a boost when the other two parties boycotted the June voting, claiming the FLN would rig the results. Their leaders are heroes of the war for independence - Berber chief Hocine Ait Ahmed and Algeria's first president, Ahmed Ben Bella. Ben Bella, 73, is the man Algerians are watching. He hopes to weld a ``democratic consensus'' to lead the country out of its economic ills. Ben Bella's stature is unrivaled by any living Algerian. He planned the 1954 uprising against France and ruled three years after independence until toppled in a military coup. Half his life has been spent in exile or prison. He currently lives in Geneva though a return to Algiers is considered imminent. ``They never broke him,'' said Hocine Guermouche, spokesman for the Movement for Democracy in Algeria. ``You've seen Mandela. He spent 27 years in prison and never lost his spirit. Ben Bella has done more ... he won the war.'' But he also gave Algeria ills it is only now shaking off: secret police, a single-party system, a Marxist economy. Whoever wins next year's elections will struggle to revive the sagging economy. In October 1988, thousands of Algerians rioted over living standards that plummeted along with prices for the country's chief export, oil. Scores of people, including many fundamentalists, died when the army crushed the uprising. The deaths robbed the FLN of popular legitimacy. Bendjedid, whose term expires in 1993, distanced the government from the FLN and drafted last year's constitutional reforms. He appointed technocrats to impose market economics. No party seems likely to meddle with the privatization program. But the pace of economic change remains slow. Unemployment officially stands at 25 percent. Families of 12 often live in two-room apartments. The government estimates 800,000 new dwellings are needed. Long lines form at shops often empty of basic foodstuffs. Jobless young men survive by hawking black-market cigarettes. Strikes proliferate. As the meuzzin at Ketchaoua mosque called the faithful to prayer, one young man said lots of political parties are fine, as long as they adhere to Islam. ``If the people vote for the FIS, fine. If they vote for ... some other party and they win, that's good, too,'' said Boumari Nacer Edde, a Casbah candy seller. ``The important thing is that there's democracy. We want democracy.''
