Algeria Vote Canceled as Crisis Grows : North Africa: The move sets the stage for a possible confrontation with Islamic fundamentalists. They had been poised to take control of the National Assembly.

ALGIERS —  Algeria’s military-backed government Sunday abruptly canceled coming national elections, plunging the nation into further uncertainty and setting the stage for a possible confrontation with Islamic fundamentalists, who had been poised to take control of the National Assembly.

While army troops and police maintained a low-profile presence around the capital, fundamentalist leaders warned against any attempt to derail the electoral process by “adventurers who want to force the country into a spiral of conflict from which only the enemies of Islam and of Algeria will prevail.”

The decision effectively suspends the fundamentalists’ dramatic electoral victory in the first round of balloting, when Islamic candidates came within easy striking distance of a majority in the National Assembly. That triggered a backlash from moderate political forces and the army that resulted in the resignation Saturday of President Chadli Bendjedid, Algeria’s head of state since 1979.

On a balmy Mediterranean winter’s day in the seaside capital, Algerians waited to see which side would blink first in what was shaping up as a standoff between the army and the fundamentalists, who clashed last June in a bloody crackdown that left as many as 100 people dead.

After an emergency meeting Sunday night, a security council of top military and government officials announced “the impossibility of continuing the electoral process until necessary conditions are achieved for the normal functioning of institutions.”

The High Security Council said it will remain in permanent session “to take charge provisionally of all questions likely to put into question public order and the security of the state.”

The nation’s Constitutional Council had stopped short earlier in the day of nullifying the Islamic Salvation Front’s earlier election gains, many of which had been challenged by members of the ruling National Liberation Front and other secular parties, which asserted that fundamentalists improperly influenced the balloting in many districts.

The Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) responded angrily to the cancellation of Thursday’s scheduled runoff elections, in which seats in the 430-member National Assembly not already decided in the Dec. 26 balloting were to be decided. The front won 188 of the 232 seats decided in December.

“The power circles are showing . . . their vile determination to maintain their grip on the Algerian people and run counter to their wishes expressed clearly on Dec. 26,” it said in a statement.

Islamic leaders had huddled in a secret location earlier in the day to consider their response to Bendjedid’s resignation and emerged with a stern warning that the electoral process must continue.

The front’s acting chief, Abdelkadir Hachani, said that the party “insists on the continuation of the electoral process against all attempts to drown the will of the people. . . . (It is) the only guarantee of stability and the everlastingness of the people and the country.”

Outside headquarters in downtown Algiers, Islamic supporters gathered quietly, and the editor of the party’s French-language newspaper, Fouad Delissi, said the move toward halting the elections “reconfirms our position that this democracy is in fact only in the abstract.”

“But we have patience,” he said, before the High Security Council’s announcement. “It is a popular will that is with us, it exists, we know what we want, we know our objectives and we are waiting patiently.”

Islamic leaders have declared their intent to establish an Islamic state in Algeria, which would become the only freely elected Islamic government in the Muslim world. They have announced plans to ban the sale of alcohol and restrict public intermingling of the sexes, and they have urged the public to dress modestly. A day after their Dec. 26 victory, a leading cleric announced plans to convene Islamic tribunals to “try the traitors who have opposed us.”

Such pronouncements provoked a wave of alarm in Algeria in the ensuing days. Shortly after the initial round of balloting, 200,000 Algerians went into the streets to protest the Islamic victory and urge the preservation of democratic principles.

Diplomats in the Algerian capital said it was apparently Bendjedid’s desire to try to reach an accommodation with the fundamentalists that led the nation’s top army generals to launch an effective coup d’etat, forcing Bendjedid to resign and clear the way within the next few months for new presidential elections.

The leading independent Algiers newspaper, Al Watan, suggested that a rumored meeting between Bendjedid and fundamentalist leaders may have been one of the key factors in bringing the matter to a head Saturday night, when Bendjedid announced he was leaving office.

“The measures taken and the voices necessary to control our problems have reached today a level at which it is no longer possible to continue without grave prejudice--which has become imminent--to national cohesion and the preservation of public order and national unity,” Bendjedid told the nation in his stunning resignation address broadcast on television Saturday night.

“He was pushed. There’s no doubt about it,” said one Western envoy. While the president of the Constitutional Council, Abdelmalek Benhabyles, remains titular head of the government, most of the key decisions appear to be in the hands of senior army generals, diplomats said.

Also taking an active role is Prime Minister Sid Ahmed Ghozali, appointed by Bendjedid to head the government after the state of siege that was declared last June. Ghozali is considered a likely National Liberation Front candidate for the presidency when new presidential elections, which under the constitution must be held within 45 days, are scheduled.

Sources close to the government said the primary aim now appears to be to develop a strategy for preventing the fundamentalists from taking control of the country while maintaining the appearance of adhering to the constitution--a difficult proposition, considering that the Islamic party, one of 54 legal parties, gained 49% of the popular vote.

“By last week, it was beginning to sink in, what we knew all along: that it would be virtually impossible to stop the FIS,” one diplomat said. “Now the concern is how to cloak it constitutionally. How far are they prepared to go? Are they prepared to bury the FIS? If they do, they’re going to have to root them out and arrest them.”

Fundamentalist leaders appeared uncertain about how to respond to the crisis, which on the surface appeared to meet their demands for Bendjedid to step down and schedule immediate presidential elections.

Any sign of resistance on the part of the Islamic party is sure to bring a swift response from the army, including the dissolution of the party, several diplomats and government officials said. Yet failing to resist would force the fundamentalists to yield all the gains they have won in balloting so far and any immediate voice in the government.

In a communique Sunday, the Constitutional Council confirmed that the existing National Assembly, composed solely of members of the old ruling National Liberation Front, has been dissolved, leaving only the interim, military-backed government in charge until new presidential elections are held.

In the Algerian capital, military units that had appeared in force Saturday night pulled back discreetly Sunday. Some tanks pulled up on the outskirts of the city, and a few armored personnel carriers were visible around key government ministries and the presidential palace.

Throughout most of the city, it was business as usual as this country, grown accustomed to political turmoil after nearly three years of rapid-paced political reforms, waited to see what would happen next.