Bouteflika’s Bid for Fifth Term Angers Algerians

Date: 04 March 2019 - 20:07

News ID: ۶۳۸۲۱

ALGIERS (AFP) -- Algerians on Monday dismissed President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's promise to quit early if re-elected for a fifth time and said they were ready for new protests seeking his resignation.
The ailing leader, who suffered a stroke in 2013, vowed in a letter read out on state television late Sunday to organize a "national conference" that would set a date for further polls which he would not contest.
His message -- followed by the formal submission of his candidacy for the April 18 poll by his campaign manager Abdelghani Zaalane -- failed to win hearts as new protests hit the capital Algiers and other cities.
In central Algiers hundreds of mostly young demonstrators rallied peacefully overnight Sunday and into the early hours of Monday as a helicopter buzzed overhead and police deployed gradually across the city.
Similar protests were reported in other cities across the North African country overnight.
As the week unfolded Monday, residents of the capital told AFP they were already planning for more protests as they dismissed Bouteflika's promises as an "insult".
Bouteflika "thinks we're idiots. We said no (to him). And 'we' are a people 42-million strong," said Karim, a 22-year-old unemployed man who declined to give his surname.
Local newspapers also expressed their fury, with Al-Watan daily saying Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term showed "contempt" for the tens of thousands of Algerians who have taken to the streets since February 22 calling for him to resign.
Liberte newspaper said Bouteflika's promises to serve a shorter term were merely a "maneuver" to placate the people "until he takes charge again".
But El-Moudhjahid daily, a mouthpiece of the government, said in an editorial that Bouteflika's pledge showed that he was "placing the dignity and interests of his compatriots and Algeria before anything else".
The president, who has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke, has been in Switzerland since February 24 for what the presidency described as "routine medical tests".
There were no legal requirements for him to submit his candidacy in person and it was handed in by his campaign manager Zaalane just before a midnight deadline Sunday.
Zaalane claimed that Bouteflika -- who has ruled since 1999 -- had the backing of 19,700 national and local elected representatives and of 5.86 million voters.
Their signed affidavits of support were brought Sunday night to the Constitutional Council -- where presidential bids are formally lodged -- by the truckloads.