 Several political organisations, notably the Socialist Forces Front, the ex-communist Democratic and Social Movement, leading members of the former Islamic Salvation Front (Abbassi Madani and Ali Belhadj), the main faction of the split Islamist Islah Party, and the newly formed organisation Rachad, had called on their supporters to boycott these elections.These political groups claimed that the elections were consistently rigged by the government, and that participation merely lent a fundamentally corrupt process undeserved legitimacy.The only notable remaining armed group in Algeria, the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, issued a video calling participation in the elections "a great sin", adding its voice to the boycott calls.