Abdelaziz Bouteflika, pictured here in 2017, has not spoken in public since 2014
ALGIERS, March 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has postponed the April 18 presidential elections and said he will not seek a fifth term in office.
“There will be no fifth term,” Bouteflika was quoted as saying in a statement. “There was never any question of it for me. Given my state of health and age, my last duty towards the Algerian people was always contributing to the foundation of a new Republic.”
The president’s announcement came a day after he returned home after a two-week stay in a Swiss hospital, where he has been for treatment since suffering a stroke in 2013.
He has over the years since his stroke become a virtual recluse. His last public address was in 2014, shortly after winning the previous general election.
President Bouteflika’s candidacy had provoked mass protests across Algeria over the past few weeks.
No new date for the election was set. A cabinet reshuffle will happen soon, a statement in Bouteflika’s name said.
Algeria had been hit by strikes by teachers and students, as well as shops closing and train services being suspended as thousands took to the streets.
Pressure mounted on Bouteflika to withdraw when more than 1,000 judges said on Monday they would refuse to oversee the planned general election were he a candidate.
Then the military’s chief of staff, Lt Gen Gaed Salah, said the military and the people had a united vision of the future – the strongest indication so far that the armed forces were sympathetic to the protests.
Many Algerians were concerned about his ailing health, and worried that his death in office during a fifth term might cause dangerous political instability.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian welcomed President Bouteflika’s decision not to seek re-election.
“France expresses its hope that a new dynamic that can answer the deep aspirations of the Algerian people will rapidly take hold,” he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, people on the streets of the capital, Algiers, have been celebrating the news.
Meanwhile, Algeria’s Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia announced his resignation and was replaced by Interior Minister Noureddine Bedoui, who has been tasked with forming a new government, the official APS news agency reported. — NNN-AGENCIES
