The suspects, whose cases will be decided within 15 days, are the leaders of the National Republican Alliance party, Velase Sahli, and two businessmen, Saida Neghza and Abdelhakim Hamadi.

The three defendants were placed under supervision and 68 others were arrested on suspicion of granting undue advantage, influence peddling, offering cash gifts to obtain votes, abuse of power, receiving cash gifts and fraud.

Ms. Neghza, as well as Sahli and Hamadi, asked to be included in the list of presidential candidates alongside the three leading contenders: President Abdelmadjid Tebboune; Abdelali Hasani Cherif, of the Movement of the Society for Peace (of Islamist sensibility), and Youcef Aouchiche, of the Front of Socialist Forces.

President Tebboune, who is attending the contest as an independent candidate, although he is known to have the support of the National Liberation Front, won the 2019 prime ministerial election with nearly 59 percent of the vote.

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