Algeria protests grow against Bouteflika

Algeria protests grow against Bouteflika

Biggest demonstrations call for a ‘free and democratic’ Algeria

By: MiralAlAshry, Associate Professor at Future University (FUE), Political Mass Media Department

Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced his candidacy for a fifth presidential term according to that Algerian protests began on 16 February 2019.These protests, without precedent since the Algerian Civil War, on started on February 21next day the portrait of the President was torn down from the landmark central and the post office. Human rights activists said that up to 800,000 demonstrators.A diplomatic source estimated that as many as 70,000 people had massed in Algiers, including a rally at Bab Ezzouar university.

On 24 February 2019, regularly hospitalized for “periodic medical examinations”, Abdelaziz Bouteflika was admitted to the University Hospital of Geneva (Switzerland). On March 8 a call to protest hundreds of protesters marched peacefully, calling his candidacy a “provocation”, an “insult” and a “masquerade”. The next day, many students boycotted their classes.Protesters held signs reading: “Dictatorship means shutting your mouth. Democracy means always talking.”

Crowds gathered in Algiers throughout the morning despite train services being stopped by authorities, and huge numbers demonstrated in every other major city and most towns. Most of those involved are young but they have received support from journalists, lawyers, unions and the influential association of veterans of the war of independence against the French between 1954 and 1962.

The protests were the biggest in a series staged almost daily since a huge rally on 22 February. So far all have been without violence. Moreover, Social media pages told marchers to come equipped only with “love, faith, Algerian flags and roses”.

There is widespread resentment in Algeria at the incompetence and corruption of the Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN), the party that has been in power for more than 50 years. Several FLN parliamentarians resigned to join the protest movement.

Andrew Lebovich, an analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said: “The protests can’t be ignored forever,and I think the situation would be really very difficult.”

Politics in Algeria are notoriously opaque, but analysts say there may be divisions among the top FLN officials, spies, businesspeople and Bouteflika’s inner circle who collectively constitute the ruling elite.

Algerian president he will not run again

Bouteflika made the surprise announcement on Monday 11 March a letter to the Algerian people from his office. that he will not run again I am 82-year-old leader, I has been in power for two decades.

the new elections scheduled for April to allow for consultation on reforms “for a new generation”. The country was living through a sensitive stage of its history. On this, at least he and his compatriots are agreed.

Bouteflika said in the letter, praising the peaceful nature of the protests before promising sweeping constitutional and political changes. and “This new system and new republic will be in the hands of a new generation of Algerians,” he said, promising a national conference lasting until the end of this year to find his successor.

This national conference under the direction of an independent presidential commission. “This will independently decide the date of the presidential election, in which I will not be a candidate in any instance,” he said. The conference will be accompanied by a national referendum to rewrite the constitution. In the meantime, Algeria will be governed by an interim government to oversee the country’s day-to-day institutional function.

The conference will lead to a “transformation of our nation state”, and fix the date of the next polls, the Algerian president said.

The expertsin Algeria said, the region, told Passion Islamic that if in 1962 Algeria had experienced independence, history would remember that in 2019 the country had found its freedom.